New York ? A federal prosecutor investigating corruption in the $64 billion oil-for-food program issued the case’s first criminal charges against a U.N. official, accusing a former Russian procurement officer of receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from companies doing business with the United Nations.

Alexander Yakovlev, 52, pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, said David N. Kelley, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. If convicted, he could face up to 60 years in prison.

The case against Yakovlev grew out of the United Nations’ own investigation of its marred oil-for-food program, and came on a day when a U.N.-appointed panel accused Benon V. Sevan, the program’s former director, of receiving nearly $150,000 in kickbacks from a company run by relatives of former U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker, who is leading the U.N. investigation, said Yakovlev tried to solicit bribes from a Swiss company that was bidding for business in the oil program. In addition, Volcker alleged that Yakovlev received more than $950,000 in an offshore bank account from contractors doing other types of business with the United Nations.

A senior U.N. official said that Annan on Monday waived Yakovlev’s diplomatic immunity from prosecution, and was prepared to do the same in the case of Sevan, who has denied wrongdoing and who recently returned to his native Cyprus. Cyprus does not have an extradition treaty with the United States covering financial crimes.

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who heads the Independent Inquiry Committee investigating alleged corruption in the United Nations oil-for-food program, addresses the media during a press conference releasing the committee's third interim report Monday in New York.

Yakovlev was released from custody Monday on a $400,000 bond and restricted from travel, said Megan Gaffney, a spokeswoman for Kelley. Yakovlev declined to comment through his lawyer, Arkady Bukh.

In April last year, Annan appointed Volcker to head an inquiry into allegations that senior U.N. officials, including Sevan, profited from the program.

Volcker said he will issue a more comprehensive account of the oil program’s failings in September. That report will revisit allegations of influence peddling by Annan, whose son Kojo received payments from a company that conducted business in the U.N. program. It will also examine Boutros-Ghali’s role in establishing the program and the U.N. Security Council’s oversight of it.