Kojo Annan is the only son of ex-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. A January 2005 article in The Sunday Times catapulted him to fame when it announced that he had confessed involvement in the UN Oil-for-Food Programme scandal; in a libel settlement eleven months later, the paper announced that it now "entirely accepts that the allegation [of his confession] was untrue."
At issue is the use of political associations to gain the private sale of oil from Iraq through the UN—which was illegal as Iraq was under UN sanctions and showed a conflict of interest because it compromised the UN's neutral role. Further, the Oil-for-Food Programme was a strictly humanitarian venture—to use it as a means to gain profit was to steal from the Iraqi people.
From 1995 to 1997, Kojo Annan worked in West Africa for the Swiss-based inspection company Cotecna, then as a marketing consultant for the company. A July 1998 billing memo for Cotecna stated that Annan wrote that he should be reimbursed for eight days that included six days "during my father's visit to Nigeria". A fax dated August 28, 1998 included the statement, "Your work and the contacts established at this meeting should ideally be followed up at the September 1998 UN General Assembly in New York." A September 1998 hotel bill for the Holiday Inn Garden Court in Durban was paid for by Cotecna, while he was registered as being there for the United Nations. He used a calling card paid for by Cotecna to call from a phone that begins 212-963-XXXX, the same beginning number for most phones in the United Nations in New York City.
