Press
Long Asked UN of
Indicted Ban Ki-moon
Nephew Using Ban's
Name, Renting to UN
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 10 – Tuesday saw the
belated bribery indictment in
New York of Ban Ki-moon's
nephew Dennis Bahn, about whom
Inner City Press has been
asking the UN since at least
May 2015, video
here.
Even
though Dennis Bahn worked
at the UN Development Program's
landlord on 45th Street,
Colliers International, the UN
Office of Internal Oversight
Services never acted, and UN
spokespeople refused to answer
Inner City Press (instead evicting
it in early 2016 (NYT here)
and restricting
it still).
Lost in
the reporting by media which
ignored Ban's scandals in 2015
(and back to 2009 when the UN
promotions of Ban's son in
law Siddharth Chatteerjee,
and censorship, began),
is the UN connection.
Dennis
Bahn reportedly said that Ban
Ki-moon would get Qatar's sovereign
wealth fund to invest in the
Vietnam building; undeniably,
Ban Ki-moon's nephew worked at
UN landlord Colliers, a
blatant conflict of interest.
On October 6,
2016 Inner City Press asked Ban
Ki-moon's spokesman Farhan Haq again about
Ban's nephew's fraud conviction. Beyond
the Vine video here, second half.
From
the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: You
had said to somehow ask Colliers if the
individual who's listed in the newspaper as
the nephew of the Secretary-General as working
for them at the time that the fraud that he
was just convicted of occurred. Doesn't
the UN have a duty, if it has existing
contractors… I just went by 45th Street
today. The sign is still up, so the UN
is doing business with Colliers. If a
newspaper, widely circulated, says an employee
of their company was convicted of fraud, isn't
there some follow up totally outside of the
familial relationship of the
Secretary-General?
Deputy Spokesman: We do not
determine the staffing of Colliers. You
would have to ask them that. Have a good
afternoon.
Ban who
left the UN on January 1 and
tellingly his first move was
to take legal action against
the press. This came after he
had Inner City Press evicted
and still restricted after
Inner City Press asked
him repeatedly about his nephew
working for the UN Development
Program's landlord on 45th
Street, and reportedly using
Ban's name to try to sell the
tallest building in Vietnam.
While Ban has tried to explain
away the mounting scandals of
his brother Ban Ki-ho mining
in Myanmar after being on a UN
delegation there, this
indictment brings the systemic
irregularities surrounding him
into focus.
Why did
the UN's own Office of Internal
Oversight Services not
investigate and act on this?
Why were Ban and his head of
"communications," along with
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
allowed to evict and restrict
the Press which alone asked the
UN about it? And what now?
Before Ban left,
he named his own son in law Siddarth
Chatterjee to the top UN
top in Kenya.
Now
interest in South Korea is
growing about Ban Ki-moon's brother
Ban Ki-ho's mining in Myanmar,
including Ki-ho not only being
on a "UN delegation" as ICP
first reported, but having a
January 21, 2015 meeting with
Myanmar officials - and UN officials.
We'll have more on this.
Ban's moonlighting
mentor Han Seung-soo was
allowed by Ban to be a UN official
while his Doosan Infracore
sold desalinization equipment
in the UAE, where Han gave
speeches - and sold
equipment to a gold miner
(hmm) in Myanmar.
And after leaving
the UN, Ban openly enlisted a
person still in the UN job
he'd given him, Jeffrey
Sachs, to campaign for
South Korea's presidency with
him. This is now reported by
CNBC as well, here.
Inner City Press
on January 9 asked Ban's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about Sachs' comments and
Dujarric said, as he so often
does without coming back with
anything, that he will look
into it. Video
here.
This while media
reports link
“full time” UN official Kim
Won-soo to Ban's wannabe
campaign.
Ban
Ki-moon has used and abused
the UN, not only the General
Assembly resolution he is
ignoring by running, but by
using public taxpayers' money
to further his own ambition.
In his final year
Ban evicted Inner City Press
from the UN, where still under
his successor it remains
restricted to minders to cover
events on the UN's second
floor.
Back in
2009, when Inner City Press
reported on Ban's nepotism in
connection with a promotion of
Ban's son in law, an
invitation to lunch came from
South Korea's Mission to the
UN.
Then deputy
ambassador Kim Bong-hyun used
the lunch to berate Inner City
Press on how to cover (and not
cover) Ban. (The article, and
his full reply, are here).
Now he's listed
on Ban's campaign team, along
with still UN official Kim
Won-soo and former South
Korean Ambassadors to the UN
Kim Sook and Oh Joon.
Oh Joon
has just given an interview
claiming that press criticism
of Ban Ki-moon is of his
"inclusive leadership." How
about his nepotism: son in law
promoted to top UN job in
Kenya, nephew with UN landlord,
brother Ki-ho mining in
Myanmar after being on a UN delegation?
Tellingly,
the UN's Office of Internal
Oversight Services never
looked into or acted on these;
Ban through still at the UN Cristina
Gallach had Inner City
Press evicted
and still
restricted, still even
on January
9, 2017 harassed for daring
to cover the UN...
Sachs,
Ban and his fan club, UN Censorship Alliance, UN
Photo
In
early January, Inner City
Press asked Kim Won-soo
directly, when will you be
leaving the UN? He refused to
answer, backing away smiling.
But it is no joke, to take
public funds while reportedly
on the campaign team of a
political candidate. We'll
have more on this.
***
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