Thursday, November 12, 2009

Obama’s UN-Mgt Reform Nominee's Troubles

President Obama nominated Jide Zeitlin to be Representative of the United States to the United Nations for U.N. Management and Reform on September 14. Mr. Zeitlin had his confirmation hearing at the SFRC last November 4. Over the weekend, Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui of The Times of India reported on more trouble for Mr. Zeitlin in India (Obama envoy wanted by Lucknow police | TNN 8 November 2009) :

"The criminal case has been lodged under Section 406 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) by a group of 16 telecom sector contractors based in Lucknow accusing IMI of not clearing their outstanding dues worth an estimated Rs 4.5 crore (Almost a million US dollars). Apart from IMI chairman Jide Zeitlin, the FIR also names Nakul Wafna of Mumbai, Rishad Currimjee and Amitabh Srivastava as having represented IMI in different capacities."[…]"Allegations are that even after 10 months of their contract job being executed in full, the IMI was yet to clear outstanding dues that should have been paid within 30 days of the work order being executed. The FIR, lodged by Bhupak Singh, a partner in Satakshi Contractors (Allahabad) on behalf of the 16 contractors, states that all out efforts to trace and contact the authorities of IMI named above have proved futile. The outstanding dues on IMI were causing heavy financial losses as it has blocked liquid capital of the contract companies which were issued the work orders."

The case was reportedly filed in Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India.

Read the whole thing here.

Mr. Zeitlin had been officially nominated but has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. Click here for the official statement from the WH on this nomination and here for Forbes.com’s profile of Mr. Zeitlin. The testimony of this nominee has not been posted in the SFRC website but you can watch the video of the confirmation hearing here. Click on the word “NOMINATIONS” to view the video (Zeitlin’s official statement starts at 26:00, but Q&A follows after all the nominees have read their prepared statements).

Related Item:U.N. point-man nominee seeks to assure lawmakers (TWP)

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Update: @9:15 pm I have received several emails and comments in this blog about Mr. Zeitlin's business troubles. I will not be posting them here. If you have something to say about his nomination, I suggest that you contact the following office which is tasked with considering this nomination:

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign RelationsDirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510-6225Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651Minority Phone: (202) 224-6797