Who says you can’t take it with you when you go.

The problem with UN bashing as a pastime is that the folks at the UN make is so easy that it becomes the equivalent of using a shotgun on a squirrel. The New York Times is reporting on embezzlement and rampant corruption at the UN and this time it is not Saddam’s Oil-for-Food program but stodgy dealings at the UN Weather office of all places.

An accountant working late one night in July 2003 at the United Nations-affiliated weather agency in Geneva spotted a check that he had signed, but noticed that someone had endorsed it to an unknown third party, one L. Khalil. The accountant's curiosity was piqued, and he began nosing around.

"Within half an hour I had found about 25 checks worth about $400,000 that had not gone to where they were supposed to go," said the accountant, Luckson Ngwira.

That led to a formal audit and a continuing criminal investigation by Swiss authorities at the sleepy agency, focusing on allegations of embezzlement of training funds by Muhammad Hassan, a Sudanese employee who controlled that money. Investigators allege in documents and interviews that Mr. Hassan stole as much as $3 million over three or four years.

It gets better. A woman claiming to be Mrs. Hassan had filed for a death certificate in Sudan for Muhammad Hassan, which Sudanese government officials are claiming is bogus. The question becomes: did Mr. Hassan find a way to take his $3 million when he went? Future Saddams need to know.

(tipped off by the Corner)