Yakovlev worked in the UN Secretariat since 1985. In 1993, Yakovlev signed a permanent contract with the UN as a private individual (without secondment by the Russian Federation). Yakovlev resigned on June 23, 2005. On August 8, 2005, United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan waived the
diplomatic immunity of Alexander Yakovlev upon a request from the
U.S. Attorney's Office, and Yakovlev apparently had been taken into custody, said
Mark Malloch Brown, Annan's
chief of staff. Yakovlev's case (1:2005-cr-00819) was assigned to
Southern District of New York. The same day he pleaded guilty to
wire fraud under the Oil-for-Food Programme, making him the first U.N. official to face criminal charges in connection with the scandal-tainted operation. He was released under bond of $400,000. Alexander Yakovlev also pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of
wire fraud and
money laundering for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from U.N. contractors in his work outside oil-for-food. He could have faced up to 20 years in prison for each of the three counts. His
Brooklyn-based criminal lawyer
Arkady L. Bukh said it could take several years until Yakovlev was sentenced. On December 22, 2010 he was sentenced to time served, 2 years of supervised release and was ordered to forfeit $900,000. == Controversies ==