WASHINGTON – The man whose explosive e-mails triggered a new probe of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a statement yesterday contradicting information in his own memos.
But the statement from former Cotecna executive Michael Wilson raised suspicions among investigators that his story is being coordinated with Annan. It was issued by the same London lawyer who has been representing the U.N. boss’ son, Kojo, in the oil-for-food scandal.
Wilson, a longtime friend of both Annans, was the author of two e-mails that surfaced earlier this week. The messages threw into doubt Kofi Annan’s claim that he was unaware his son’s employer was bidding for a $10 million-a-year U.N. oil-for-food contract.
In the Dec. 4, 1998, e-mails to his Cotecna bosses, Wilson wrote that he had met Kofi Annan and “his entourage” in Paris about the U.N. contract days earlier and that “we can count on their support.” Wilson left Cotecna in 2000.
But in a statement issued yesterday on his behalf by London lawyers, Steven Smith and Clarissa Amato, Wilson denied the meeting ever took place.
Amato has also been representing Kojo Annan since the scandal broke.
She refused to provide The Post further details about why Wilson contradicted his own reports or her unusual role as lawyer for both Kojo and Wilson.