Sunday Times (London) August 11, 2002, Sunday
   Overseas News

                Bosnia expels executives in sex traffic scandal

   BY: Maurice Chittenden

   TWO executives working for KPMG, one of the world's biggest
accounting
   firms, have been expelled from Bosnia over an alleged sex trafficking
   scandal. One was allegedly importing prostitutes to Sarajevo claiming
   that they were his girlfriends. The other was accused of turning a
   blind eye to the activities. The men, both Americans, were expelled
   after a British-based banker working on the same project to help
   Bosnian banks to manage their assets complained to the US State
   Department.

   A videotape recording was obtained of one of the executives using a
   USAID agency car to collect prostitutes from Sarajevo airport after
   they had flown in from Romania and Slovakia. The car's Sfor badges,
   indicating it was part of the Nato-led stabilisation force, gave it
   diplomatic status.

   The prostitutes were paid up to Pounds 500 a day. Some are said later
   to have used the same car to lure girls from a Muslim high school in
   Sarajevo into prostitution on the pretext of helping them start
   "modelling careers".

   After an inquiry by a criminal investigator, the American ambassador
   ordered the executives to return to the United States and they have
   since left the company. The British whistleblower, who has asked not
   to be named for fear of losing contracts, said last week: "The
   Americans were behaving as if it was Vietnam all over again."

   It is the second scandal involving aid workers and the use of
   prostitutes in Bosnia. Last week Kathryn Bolkovac, a policewoman from
   Nebraska, won an industrial tribunal case against being demoted and
   removed from frontline policing in Bosnia after she revealed that
   women and teenagers forced into prostitution were being abused by
   United Nations police officers who were employed to protect them.
   At least 13 employees of DynCorp, an American recruitment agency,
have
   been sent home for prostitution-related activities.

   USAID is facing an industrial tribunal in Sarajevo in the latest
case,
   after the driver used by the KPMG executives was dismissed when he
   complained about what he was asked to do.

   The driver, Edin Zundo, a former Bosnian amateur boxing champion,
said
   one of the executives trawled the internet for prostitutes and then
   hired them to come to Bosnia.

   "He kidded me they were his girlfriends but I realised what was going
   on when he didn't even recognise them at the airport," said Zundo.
   KPMG Consulting in Washington said: "The request (for the two to
   leave) came before the investigation was complete. We were informed
by
   the authorities that none of the allegations was substantiated."

   Additional reporting: Philippe Deprez in Sarajevo

   
                  Copyright 2002 Times Newspapers Limited

                                   Serbian News Network - SNN

                                        [EMAIL PROTECTED]

                                    http://www.antic.org/

Reply via email to