Ban
Ki-moon Got Favors from Bokova
Before She Left UNESCO, Now On
His Board, Censor
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Series
UNITED NATIONS,
February 21 – Ban Ki-moon's
ambition to be president of
South Korea ended amid the
indictment of his brother and
nephew and their fashion
designer colleague Malcolm
Harris for UN-related
corruption; Ban critic Moon
Jae-in won the post. Ban evicted
Inner City Press from the UN,
where it still remains restricted,
and called it all "fake news."
But there's more. Inner City
Press is exclusively informed
that before Ban put former
UNESCO chief Irina Bokova on
the board
of his new foundation, the Ban
Ki-moon Centre for Global
Citizens, he got her to place
an associate Hong Kwon as head
of UNESCO's human resources
before she left, in April
2017, here.
Informed sources tell Inner
City Press Ban also tried to
get Bokova, nearly
successfully, to give a UNESCO
post to a relative so they
could have immunity - we'll
have more on this. On February
20 Ban returned talking about
the UN Charter, bragging about
his term (photo here)
- the fact is that in
January 5,
2018 as Ban's
nephew Dennis
Bahn pleaded
guilty to UN
bribery, with
his brother
Ban Ki-sang
still on the
lam.
Both used the name of the UN
to try to sell real estate in
Vietnam to Qatar's sovereign
wealth fund. Ban has another
brother who did business in
Myanmar's war zones, again
reporting using the name of
the UN. Charter to steal? Ban
said, "During my tenure as UN
Secretary-General, I
established the ‘United
Nations Integrated Strategy
for the Sahel’ in June 2013 to
address such issues. I am
pleased to see that
Secretary-General António
Guterres, the Security
Council, and the Peacebuilding
Commission are working in
triangular cooperation to
advance this important effort.
Towards the end of my second
term as Secretary-General, in
April 2016, the Security
Council and the General
Assembly adopted twin
resolutions on the Review of
United Nations Peacebuilding
Architecture." That's working
great in Burundi. Ban did not
mention his failure in Sri
Lanka, much less his nephew's
guilty plea and brother on the
lam. We'll have more on this -
Inner City Press was unable to
try to ask Ban a question on
his way in, as due to UN
censorship it remains
restricted to the tourists'
entrance. We'll have more on
that, as well. At the
PyeongChang Olympics, Ban
Ki-moon's new foundation paid
for the hotel stay of the
President of the General
Assembly -- under Ban, PGA's
Ashe and Kutesa took bribes,
as asserted in the Southern
District of New York court --
and tweeting photos with
dubious envoys like Jean Todt,
here.
(Kim Won-soo, it seems, is
also on the board). Todt has
business links
with bars and casinos as he
purported to pitch road
safety. Ban's son in law
Siddharth Chatterjee, whom Ban
made head of the UN in Kenya
without recusing himself, is
silent as lawyers are
physically ejected, economists
have their passports canceled,
and TV stations are cut off.
But Ban always WAS a censor,
his last year moves against
Inner City Press still in
place, a true travesty. Ban
covered up the mas skilling in
Sri Lanka, while his son in
law participated in an earlier
stage. We'll have more on
this. Ban Ki-moon is trying to
re-invent himself with a bogus
foundation in Vienna, see here, and "Ban
Ki-moon Centre for Global
Citizens will work together
with other organizations, such
as UNESCO, the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) and
the Federation Internationale
l’Automobile (FIA)." But here
is from the US Attorney for
the Southern District of New
York: "U.S. v. Dennis Bahn –
the defendant is charged with
federal crimes arising out of
a corrupt scheme to pay $2.5
million in bribes to a foreign
official of a country in the
Middle East in order to
facilitate the sale by South
Korean construction company
Keangnam Enterprises Co., Ltd.
of a 72-story commercial
building to the country’s
sovereign wealth fund for $800
million – before Judge Ramos
(courtroom 619, 40 Foley
Square). A relevant
press release is attached."
Then on January 5 Joo
Hyun “Dennis”
Bahn
pleaded guilty, telling U.S.
District Judge Edgardo Ramos,
“I knew that what I was doing,
it was wrong." But what did
Ban Ki-moon know, and when did
he know it? Ban called the
indictment "fake news," but
Malcolm Harris has now been ordered
to pay over $700,000 along
with Ban Ki-moon's nephew
Dennis Bahn, still set to
stand trial, and his brother
Ban Ki Sang, who is hiding
from the US justice system in
South Korea, a fugitive. But
Ban Ki-moon himself appeared
in New York City on October 12
at South Korea's Mission to
the UN, which ran (and paid
for) Ban's campaign to become
SG. Full circle. And on
October 13, after refusing to
answer a question from Inner
City Press, Ban Ki-moon
appeared an an auction
downtown, fronting for gender
equality after as UNSG having
replaced females as Deputy SG
(Asha Rose Migiro) and chief
of staff (Susana Malcorra)
with men (Jan Eliasson and
Edmond Mullet). What a fraud -
even his "hour long" meeting
with Antonio Guterres wasn't
listed on Guterres' public
schedule. Inner City Press
asked both of their spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, from the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press: Mr.
Ban Ki-moon is in New
York. He was across the
street only yesterday.
But many people said that he's
going to meet the
Secretary-General, but I've
tried to look at the
Secretary-General's schedule…
Spokesman: There was a
courtesy call, private
meeting… courtesy call this
morning. Inner
City
Press:
Okay. By telephone, in
person? Spokesman: In
person. Inner
City Press: All
right. But why isn't
that in the schedule? I guess
I'm wondering. When
Trump meets [Henry] Kissinger,
it's on the schedule.
[laughter] Spokesman:
Well, I… neither [António]
Guterres nor Ban Ki-moon are
Trump, nor are they Kissinger.
Inner
City
Press:
I have one more
question. It's a money
question. Spokesman:
Please. It's Friday the
13th.
Inner City
Press:
Okay, and the question is
this… Spokesman: It's
not a Periscope question?
Inner City
Press:
No. It should be, but I…
I'll let you off the hook this
time. The question is
about the Department of Public
Information (DPI), and you're
going to say to ask them, but
I'm going to ask you, because
it's the public's money and
you represent the
Secretary-General. I've
heard that the DPI is talking…
unhappy about his performance,
is talking about hiring
outside consultants, and I
just wanted to know, given
that they're already spending
a lot, what is the procedure
in the UN to… if a department
is unhappy with its
performance or someone above
it is unhappy with their
performance, to simply spend
more money, rather than better
spending what they have? Can
you just… can they just hire
an outside consultant without
no… without going through the
Fifth Committee? Is
there a procurement
process? It's obviously…
this has been talked about in
a public way, so…
Spokesman: I'm not aware
of any public consultants, but
as you know, if there are bids
for any sort of services, it
goes through procurement.
Inner City Press: Can
you find out about… this is a
particular example which has
been recently said, as
recently as 3 October, that
there will be consultants
hired in just… with what money
would be my question.
Spokesman: Enjoy the
rest-" That is, no answer.
When Inner City Press wrote
factual but critical stories
about Ban, it was "contacted"
by the South Korean mission,
which then tried to restrict
it from news about North
Korea, which it covers, in
favor of scribes who never
mentioned the Ban Ki-moon
corruption cases or failures
in such places as Sri Lanka
and Myanmar
, where as Inner City Press
exposed, picked up in South
Korean media,
Ban's other brother Ban Ki Ho
did business, here.
(Ban was named part of The
Elders, apparently
automatically; now The Elders
are silent for example on the
killings by Cameroon.)
These scribes report that Ban
will meet with his successor
Antonio Guterres - but Ban is
not on Guterres' public
schedule. There's an absurd or
ghoulish rumor that Ban might
not only purport to advise on
North Korea - on which he
accomplished nothing in his
ten years as SG - but even
become a UN envoy. There
appears to be no limit to how
low this can go: we are
following this. Both Ban's
nephew and brother Ban Ki Sang
used their connection to Ban
Ki-moon to commit the fraud
and Ban and his spokespeople -
now "serving" Ban's successor
Antonio Guterres - refused to
provide any specifics about
how much Ban Ki-moon knew,
even when the last time he met
with his nephew and brother.
Yet the International Olympic
Committee tellingly made Ban
its ethics officer he was
given a seemingly automatic
seat on "The Elders," which
while horning on in death-less
conflicts have been silent,
for example, on Cameroon's
killings. (Here
was Ban smiling taking an
award from 35-year Cameroon
president Paul Biya.) We'll
have more on this - and on yet
another
Ban scandal, convicted Ng Lap
Seng, and on Ban's brother Ban
Ki-ho and what Inner City
Press exposes as his mining in
Myanmar, where yet more
people, the Rohnigya, are
being slaughtered. Some Elder.
Reuters also tellingly
previously mis-reported that
Ban's nephew Dennis Bahn had
pleaded guilty too, although
the Department of Justice
press release Reuters retyped
didn't say that. Ban is also
rumored to want back into the
North Korea issue, on which he
accomplished nothing in his
ten years as UN Secretary
General. But new information
has emerged after the guilty
verdict against Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng. Inner
City Press, which was evicted
from Ban's UN for covering the
scandal in the UN Press
Briefing Room and remains
restricted, has begun
obtaining the prosecution's
full evidence. This includes,
as simply the first example,
an email
showing Ban's UN rewarding Ng
with support for his
then-planned Macau center
after what the UN called
positive coverage of Ban's
travels. Inner City Press has
asked the UN - Ban's former
deputy spokesman - about it, here.
This is corruption, not
ethics. We'll have more on
this. Meanwhile as Inner City
Press first reported on early
May, Ban's Kim Won-soo is
trying to parlay the job Ban
gave him in UN Disarmament to
become head of the
Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons. But he has six
competitors: Tibor Toth of
Hungary, Fernando Arias
Gonzalez of Spain, Saywan
Sabir Mustafa Barzani of Iraq,
Jesper Vahr of Denmark,
Abdouraman Bary of Burkina
Faso and Vaidotas Verba of
Lithuania. Will Jeffrey Sachs,
who impermissibly endorsed
Dho Young-shim for the UN
World Tourism Organization
also endorse Kim Won-soo?
Since the UN is lawless, if
not, wy not? Amid this and the
now-begun Ng Lap Seng trial
about UN bribery pervasive in
the Ban Ki-moon era, The
Elders have jumped the gun and
debased their brand making Ban
one of te fold. What's he
going to work on (or cover
up), mass atrocities like he
did in Sri Lanka? Impunity
like for his UN bringing
cholera to Haiti? We'll have
more on this.Harris "pleaded
guilty to charges stemming
from a bribery case that
involves a brother and nephew
of former United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
[He] entered his plea to money
laundering and wire fraud
before U.S. District Judge
Edgardo Ramos in federal court
in Manhattan. Harris is
scheduled to be sentenced on
Sept. 27." During the General
Assembly week. Ban and his
family, which used Ban and the
UN to try to sell real estate,
are corrupt. But in continued
search for a consolation
prize, Ban has announced "I am
deeply honoured to be
nominated as the Chair of the
IOC’s Ethics Commission and
accept the position with a
sense of humility and
responsibility. The United
Nations and the International
Olympic Committee have had a
close working relationship
over many years with both
organisations contributing to
building a peaceful and better
world. In working closely
under the principles of the
IOC movement, I will do my
best to enhance the
accountability and
transparency of the IOC." But
Ban brought neither
accountability nor
transparency to the UN; he has
left two separate bribery
cases in his wake, and
continued censorship. We'll
have more on this. After Moon
Jae-in nominated Ms. Kyung-wha
Kang, who worked for and with
Ban at the UN and physically
witnessed the Ban's
Department of Public
Information's eviction
of Inner City Press, as his
nominee for foreign minister,
her nomination is increasingly
slowed by corruption issues,
some of them UN-related. Ban
is sinking lower, trolling the
committees of the
Massachusetts state house for
praise, while babbling
that "'Having read what he
said is misguiding and
misleading the truthful
effects, so U.S. should be
part of this.' Ban clarified
he was referring to Trump."
Oh. He's gotten a Christian
college Yonsei University in
Seoul to hire him, claiming
he's a scientist. He's
announced in advance where
he'll appear in October: the
"Tax Free World Association,"
here.
Will he be paid? Or is
tax-evasion just another
topic, like censorship,
close to his heart? Ban
Ki-moon is corrupt, and
corrupted those around him. On
June 7 Kang was grilled, now
including for plagiarizing her
doctoral thesis and on a
second home on Geoje Island,
South Gyeongsang Province,
real estate speculation,
widespread in Ban Ki-moon's
circle of family and, like
Kang, friends. Another common
denominator is double talk.
Kang said of the comfort women
deal Ban praised, “From the
standpoint of a person who had
been involved in human rights
affairs at the UN, I found it
to be very strange in many
aspects. Doubts linger over
whether it was surely reached
with a victims-oriented
approach." But there is no
evidence Kang mentioned any of
the strange aspects before Ban
praised the deal. This is
noted by those still at the
UN, like those in the
Administration 200 miles
south: the statements and
actions of the boss may be
attributed to you. And how can
Kang claim as her
qualification her deep
involvement with Ban at the UN
and then distance herself from
what was done, and not done?
Beyond Ban and for example
Cristina "The Evicter"
Gallach, who else in Ban's
administration was tied up in
corruption? Some of it goes
back to the 2006 line-up in
South Korea's Mission to the
UN, which included, it seems,
later Ban campaign spokesman
Lee Do-woon (audio)
as well as Kang just before
her first UN system posting.
As to Kang now, "a U.N.
staffer surnamed Woo, who worked
for the Office of the U.N.
High Commissioner for Human
Rights in Geneva under Kang's
supervision, invested 40
million won ($35,590) in a
firm owned by Kang's eldest
daughter Lee Hyun-ji. Woo's
older brother also invested 20
million won in the firm. Last
year, Kang's daughter
established the company
dealing with imported wine and
cheese. The 60 million won
from the Woo family accounted
for 75 percent of the initial
capital. 'Then-U.N. staff
member Woo became intimate
with the Kang family including
her daughter, while staying in
Geneva from 2007 to 2013,' a
foreign ministry official
said. 'Keeping in touch with
Woo, Lee Hyun-jin founded the
company in cooperation with
the Woo brothers.' After being
tapped May 21, she has faced
growing suspicions of
corruption - false residence
registration and belated
payment of gift taxes. Her two
daughters paid 2.3 million won
each in gift tax, two days
after the nomination, for
homes that they purchased with
Kang's money." That's a lot of
UN money. Now Inner City
Press' sources in the UN in
Geneva exclusively tell it
that Woo is in fact "Wu," as
in Hannah Wu, whom Kang not
without controversy shepherded
unto a panel about Syria - as
head of the Secretariat of the
Independent International
Commission of Inquiry on the
Syrian Arab Republic - and is
now with the UN Working Group
on the Issue of Discrimination
Against Women in Law and in
Practice. Inquiry has begun
into how those promotions,
alongside the reported
investments in the Kang
family's business, took place.
As one of Inner City Press '
sources put it, If South Korea
was like the US today, Hannah
Wu would be subpoenaed, or be
deemed a "person of interest."
There is, of course, UN
immunity or impunity leaving,
especially when questions are
not
answered and the
questioner evicted and
restricted, reporting as the
only way forward. Watch this
site. "New" Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
told Inner City Press Kang's
UN job is NOT being held for
her. On June 1 Inner City
Press asked Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: as you know,
Kyung-wha Kang is seeking
confirmation as Foreign
Minister of South Korea.
And the reason I'm asking this
question is that one of the
issues that's come up is it's
reported, not just by the
media, but by those
questioning her, that two
people that worked for her at
the… in the UN system
allegedly invested in her
daughter's businesses.
So, what I wanted to know,
without knowing whether this
is, in fact, true, but it is
being alleged in a formal
confirmation hearing, is there
any UN rule against a
supervisor having an underling
invest in a child's
business venture?
Spokesman: I have no
comment on these
allegations. As for the
staff rules, they're public,
and the ethics rules are
public, and you're free to
consult them. Inner City
Press: Right, but they're very
vague. That’s why I’m
asking. Spokesman: I'm
just saying I have no comment
on these allegations.
You can look at the rules. Arirang
News, which Ban had his
hatchet women from Spain Cristina
Gallach include
in the UN's in-house network,
"reported"
on Ban grabbing an award from
the World Tourism Organization
for having... visited this
WTO's headquarters in Spain.
This is pathetic. Days after
the firing of Preet Bharara,
who indicted Ban Ki-moon's
brother Ki-sang and nephew
Dennis Bahn for UN-related
corruption, Ban Ki-moon is
bragging he will get free
housing and a no-show job from
Harvard University. Ban says
he'll cash in with "a
secretary and
a residence
for him and
his wife Yoo
Soon-taek" and
only "hold
occasional
seminars as a visiting
professor." But who will want
to hear them? Maybe those
facing indictment of close
family members and unanswered
questions about others, Ban
Ki-ho mining in Myanmar, but
still looking to save face.
Ban's nephew Dennis Bahn had
his position at New York
University withdrawn after the
corruption indictment. What
will happen with his Uncle Ban
Ki-moon?
After the South
Korean court ruling finally
impeaching Park Geun-hye, not
only her corruption but that
of Ban Ki-moon comes to the
fore. Hypocrisy, too: Ban
Ki-moon, who left the lawless
UN as his relatives were
indicted for UN-related
bribery, having evicted the
Press which asked about it,
pontificated about the "rule
of law." Using media friendly
to him, Ban was quoted that
"the people, especially those
who protested against the
impeachment, must accept the
ruling. Only then can the rule
of law, which is the basic
value of the Korean
Constitution, stand upright."
Ban dodged the
charges and evicted the Press
which pursued them, only to
see himself exposed as corrupt
in three short weeks in South
Korea, dropping out of
campaigning before even
declaring. Now he tried to
cash out to Harvard, which
would be a travesty.
In February
Ban Ki-moon grabbed up yet
another obscure award, in Los
Angeles. There was no live
stream, and the link to
sponsor -- providing money
like Ban collected $100,000
sponsorships as recently as
October 2016 -- led nowhere.
How quickly the Emperor has
been exposed as having no
clothes. But will Harvard
still pay to collect fossils?
On his way
to LA, before using the UN
again to promote himself in
connection with the death of
Vitaly Churkin, Ban stopped in
Kenya to visit the son in law
he promoted to the job UN job
there. When Inner City Press
asked the UN about it on
February, Ban's long-time
deputy spokesman Farhan Haq called Inner City Press an
obsessive a*hole. Haq insisted
that the UN Spokesperson's
Office does NOT speak for Ban.
That was on February 14.
Then on
February 20 the UN
Spokesperson's Office of Haq
and his also holdover boss
Stephane Dujarric DID speak
for Ban, issuing Ban's canned
statement on the death of
Vitaly Churkin. On February
22, Inner City Press asked Haq
about it. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
a week ago that you'd said
that you don't speak for Ban
Ki-moon and et cetera.
So, yesterday, I obviously
couldn't help noticing that
you did speak for Ban
Ki-moon. So, what's the
status of you speaking for Ban
Ki-moon?
Deputy Spokesman: No,
no, we didn't. We were
asked to transmit to the
journalists a message that he
had prepared just because of
his long-time experience with
Ambassador Churkin. This
is not something that goes out
as a statement of… by the
UN. But, it was
something where, given his
experience with Churkin and
given the fact that he knew
that the reporters here knew
that, he wanted to find some
means of transmitting his
condolences.
But
by whom was the UN asked?
Ban's inside man Kim Won-soo?
Ban's new corruption denier
Lee Do-woon? Why not just get
the email list? And wouldn't
condolences be sent to
Churkin's family and the
Mission, rather than
virtue-signaled to the world,
a form of self-promotion or
attempted reputation
rehabilitation? We'll have
more on this duplicity,
another attempt by today's UN
in need of reform and
house-cleaning to evade its
corruption and double
standards.
On
February 13, Inner City Press
asked UN Deputy Spokesman
Farhan Haq about Ban's
UN-Kenya stop, and any public
costs. Haq, who dodged for
years on irregularities from
Ban promoting his son in law
in the UN without recusal to
Ban's nephew working at the
UN's landlord Colliers, said
"get over it." Video
here.
So after
learning more - including
about the role in promoting
Ban of his Kim Won-soo, still
paid by the UN, that is the
public, Inner City Press asked
Haq again, video
here...
***
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