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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Series

UNITED NATIONS GATE, October 17 – 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 first evicted Inner City Press from the UN, where it still remains restricted, and called it all "fake news." Now, with Ban's successor following his censorship example even further, on October 18 Ban is back in New York, handing out awards in an event co-managed by the foreign ministry of South Korea, which just denied refugee status to clearly entitled people fleeing the carnage in Yemen Ban made worse, by dropping Saudi Arabia from the UN child killer list. Here's a notice sent to Inner City Press by a number of disgusted recipients: "UNCA is extending an invitation to the Asia Initiatives 17th annual gala, taking place Thursday, October 18th at 6:30 pm at Tribeca 360° where the eight UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will present the award for Women's Empowerment to Chelsea Clinton and Susan Blaustein.

Asian Initiatives has secured FOUR (4) seats only for UNCA members, which will be reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.

PLEASE RSVP to.. W J Chang __ [at] mofa.go.kr

Included below is the invitation and additional details.

The event is open to all UN correspondents." Except those ousted, first by Ban and now under a secret banned list that even Ban didn't think to use in this way... On September 6 Ban's nephew Dennis Bahn (a/k/a Joo Hyun Bahn) after pleading guilty in January under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, has been sentenced to six months incarceration.The US Attorney's office has said, "Between February 2014 and May 2015, BAHN engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to a foreign official in a country in the Middle East [ICP: Qatar] in order to facilitate the sale of Landmark 72 in Hanoi, Vietnam, to the Middle Eastern country’s sovereign wealth fund. In particular, BAHN, his father Ban Ki Sang, and others agreed to pay $500,000 upfront to the foreign official, whom BAHN believed made decisions about the acquisition of assets for the Middle Eastern country’s sovereign wealth fund, in order to corruptly influence him to cause the sovereign wealth fund to purchase Landmark 72. The case against Ban, 70, of Seoul, South Korea, is still pending. Ban is presumed innocent unless convicted beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."  Many feel the penalty for Dennis Bahn is too light and marvel that the brother of the last SG is on the lam. But the fact remains, the nephew of the last UNSG is in jail, while the current SG did not disclose the Africa business links of his son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres. This before Guterres and perhaps Ban got to the funeral ceremony of Kofi Annan in Ghana on September 13. Annan was scrutinized by the Press including about his son Kojo Annan and the Mercedes but never evicted it. Ban did it for three days - but Guterres is now at 65 days. We'll have more on this. Inner City Press was 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. Today 9 April 2018, with Kwon under fire at the UNESCO meeting in Paris, in China Ban has gotten himself another sinecure, this time with the Boao Forum on Asia. Given the corruption of the UN under Ban Ki-moon, not only bribery by Ng Lap Seng and Patrick Ho of CEFC China Energy but his own brother and nephew Dennis Bahn, the further deterioration of the UN under Antonio Guterres who won't even raise or respond on these issues comes into focus. What better way to keep up the openness (of wallet?) Guterres has praised while there than by feathering Ban's nest? What better way to show Guterres what he could expect for his silence. Is there no cooling off or anti-revolving door period for former UN officials? After l'affaire Bernardino Leon in the UAE, clearly not. 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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