Ban
Ki-moon Threatens Legal Action
on ICP's Scoops on Brother
Mining in Myanmar
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Follow
Up
UNITED NATIONS,
January 17 – Ban Ki-moon has threatened
to take legal action
against reports about his
brother Ban Ki Ho mining in
Myanmar, and being listed in
connection with a UN
delegation.
Since even the South Korea
media, perhaps afraid,
cited Inner City Press'
exclusive on this issue, we
re-publish and amplify here -
including after resubmitting
the questions to the Ban
Ki-moon spokesperson to whom
the UN referred us, Yoon
Won-joong.
Ban
Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki-ho has
done business in Myanmar through
at least two companies, Inner
City Press exclusively
reported earlier this year.
The
UN's response has been to refuse
to answer the Press' questions
and to require
it to have “minders” to
cover most events inside the UN.
On December 16 as Inner City
Press reported on this and Ban,
its Periscope broadcasting camera
was smashed directly in
front of an event honoring Ban,
as he moves to run for South
Korea's presidency.
Inner
City Press' first
story about Ban Ki Ho
was on November 3, 2016,
in connection with Ki-ho's work
in the United Arab Emirates with
Han Seung-soo, the former South
Korean prime minister who has
been one of Ban's mentors.
As
Inner City Press even
earlier exclusively
reported, Ban has allowed Han
Seung-soo to be simultaneously a
UN official, the Under Secretary
General for Water and Disaster
Risk Reduction, and on the
boards of directors of Doosan
Infracore and of Standard
Chartered Bank which has
contracts with the UN.
Han
Seung-soo, when Inner City Press
asked him about it at a stakeout
along with South African
President Jacob Zuma, refused to
answer: here,
with video. Ban's
spokesperson's response
was to claim Inner City Press
was "bullying" him, here.
In the
final days of Ban
Ki-moon's decade
as UN Secretary
General, covering
up genocides in Sri
Lanka, Burundi
and Yemen
and evicting
the Press which
asked about
(t)his
corruption,
Inner City Press
is reviewing Ban's
end, year by year.
See also this
Twitter Moment.
In 2006 after Ban was given the
job since he was NOT “God's gift
to humanity,” even then he was criticized for
close business links with
Myanmar, by Djoko Susilo
among others.
By 2008,
Inner City Press asked
Ban, here, "about the
responsibility of private
corporations doing business in
Myanmar, giving the specific
example of South Korea's Daewoo
and its deal with Myanmar Oil
and Gas. I cannot comment on
specifics, Ban said, adding that
'whoever has influence' should
try to convince Myanmar to
improve its record."
As it
turned out, Ban Ki-moon's
brother Ban
Ki-ho would do mining and
other business in Myanmar,
after being on a “UN
delegation.” Ban Ki-moon's
nephew Dennis Bahn is said to
have used his uncle's name and
position while trying to sell
real estate in Vietnam.
The Bans have yet to answer
these questions. Here's
the
December 26 round-up
story by Inner City Press.
And here,
taken offline after inquiry but
tweeted by Inner City Press, is
a
photo of Ban Ki-ho in Myanmar,
for magnesium, under the
banner Korea - Myanmar CEOs
Partnership Plaza.
On
the morning of December 27, a UN
work day, Inner City Press asked
Ban Ki-moon's three top
spokespeople questions including
"please
state the business activities in
Myanmar of Ban Ki-moon's brother
Ban Ki-ho, not only through KD
Power which your Office has
stated it understands Ban Ki-ho
has left, but also through
Bosung Powertec and any other
company and again, all details
of the “UN delegation” the link
regarding which Inner City Press
has previously provided your
office in early November"
and
"Please
state the date and separately
content of the Secretary General
last three communications with
Park Yeon-cha or any other
official or employee of
Taekwang."
More than a full day later,
there were no answers, not even
a confirmation of receipt. On
the morning of December 28 on
this Inner City Press asked Ban
Ki-moon's full paid Office of
the Spokesperson:
"please
definitely state that dates on
which Ban Ki-moon's brother Ban
Ki-ho began and if applicable
ended employment with Bosung
Powertec and KD Power or any of
their affiliates, and during
those time frames the companies'
business activities in Myanmar."
Five hours later, the
spokespeople sheepishly closed
their office and left, no
answers. Having received calls
from media in South Korea who
have falsely been told that
Bosung Powertec does no business
in Myanmar, that there was no UN
delegation, Inner City Press now
publishes this:
Evidence (in a UN publication) of
Bosung Powertec's involvement in Myanmar:
Annex 5.6. Selected Korean
MSMEs (page 241)
Myanmar Bosung Powertec Co, Ltd Electronics
and electric equipment and components
Here is evidence of both Bosung
Powertec and Ban Ki-ho's "previous" employer
KD Power involved in Myanmar
Power
instrument makers rush off to Myanmar, a
land of opportunity
Yoo Chang-seon Sep
11, 2013
Small and medium power
instrument makers are continually
entering the Myanmarese market in
order to take the Myanmarese
government’s long-term power
development plan as a business
opportunity.
Bosung Power entered
into a contract to supply power
transmission tower manufacturing
facilities in 2009 and 2011 with MEC, a Myanmarese
national steel company, and
has already set foot into the market.
Following a Myanmarese branch
establishment in 2011, the company is
promoting the local market entry in
full swing. Recently, Bosung Power is preparing
a site for its own production plant
in an area at a 1.5-hour driving
distance from Yangon.
KD
Power has been promoting to supply
photovoltaic power generation system and
DC household appliances since May to
suburban areas of Myanmar where
the power supply conditions are poor.
On
December 26 it was reported
in South Korea that even
while Ban Ki-moon was UN
Secretary General, he received
$30,000 from a businessman, in a
restaurant. See
here, including Park
Yeon-cha (as well as Vietnamese
minister Nguyen Dy Nien) with
this quote:
""It
would have been early 2007,
shortly after Ban took office as
Secretary General of the United
Nations. New York has a
restaurant owner who knows him
well. Park called the owner of
the restaurant and said, "If Ban
comes to eat, give me $ 30,000
as a gift to celebrate the
inauguration of the secretary
general." In fact, we know that
money was handed to Ban. ""
Did
the UN's Office of Internal
Oversight Services ever look
into this? We're still waiting
to hear from them. As to Ban
Ki-moon's spokespeople, they
have refused to answer Inner
City Press' written questions
back to November 25 about Ban
Ki-ho, etc.
Ban
Ki-moon has largely been immune
from accountability for ten
years, due to a mixture of
sycophantry and, when seen as
necessary in 2016, censorship,
eviction and restriction of the
investigative Press. But
in 2017...
It is
reported that Ban Ki-moon will
push the button to drop the
Times Square ball on New Years
Eve, seemingly arranged by NYC
Mayor Bill de Blasio's
relentlessly pro UN Office of
International Affairs (which never
answered Inner City Press
about any de Blasio position on
Ban Ki-moon having shirked
accountability for his UN
bringing deadly cholera to
Haiti.)
But the moment that ball drops,
Ban Ki-moon's legal immunity is
over. We'll have more on this.
In
his first year, 2007, Ban
Ki-moon bought
in numerous South Korean
staffers. Inner City Press
asked and was told there was
only one, then that there were five, including
Kweon Ki-hwan.
Then
Ban's spokespeople including
Choi Soung-ha chastised Inner
City Press for asking, and
demanded that the names of 51
South Korea staffers of the
Secretariat be removed from
Inner City Press' reporting.
Then
Inner City Press received this:
Subject:
Attn: Matthew Lee, Senior
Reporter
From: [Anonymity requested]
To: Matthew.Lee [at]
innercitypress.com
hi - good reporting and keep it
up. On the Koreans in
Secretariat story, I think the
question to ask is this:
"No previous UN
Secretary-General has brought
more than a single national to
work in his office, usually as a
personal assistant or press
officer (Kofi Annan brought
zero, Boutros brought one
Egyptian... to be his personal
spokesman, Perez de Cuellar
brought on junior diplomat to
help him. Why has Ban Ki-Moon
needed to bring so many and
appoint them to such high
positions (ASG, D1, etc)?
What is different?"
There is a Korean 'team' which
is a virtual cabinet, shadowing
and if necessary circumventing
all normal systems. good
luck."
We'll have more on this.
Ban's
arly censorship, which
culminated in 2016 with Ban
evicting Inner City Press
through Cristina Gallach, audio
here, and Inner
City Press' camera being
smashed.
Inner City Press even before
Ban's Day 1 asked
about financial transparency.
It would end, a decade later,
with Ban refusing to say who
paid for his travel, even what
“carbon offsets” he supposed
bought.
On Ban's first
day at work, after walking
in with Vijay Nambiar who would
go on to cover up genocide in
Myanmar after participating in
it in Sri Lanka in the White
Flag Killings, Ban was asked
about the death penalty (for
Saddam Hussein) and replied that
it is “up to member states.” His
first spokesperson Michele
Montas tried to repair the
damage.
In
late 2016 Inner City Press saw
Montas in the UN, from the
“focus booth” where it does what
work it can after Ban and his
Under Secretary General for
Public Information Cristina
Gallach evicted
it from its long time UN
office.
Meanwhile
Kofi Annan's spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, who played
a role in the eviction, is
bragging
that he will remain. We'll
have more on this.
The UN refused to meaningfully
answer on those conflicts of
interest. On November 4, Inner
City Press reported
Ban Ki-ho's business in
Myanmar, including that
Ki-ho was on a “UN delegation”
in the country and had done
mining in Shan state, a war
zone.
The response to this story,
tellingly, was for the South
Korean Mission to the UN to
write to Inner City Press
requesting more information and
any more internet links Inner
City Press had. Inner City Press
provided these to the Mission
and to the UN.
Immediately after that, one of
the links was disappeared
from the Internet. Inner
City Press found the archived
page, here. And still, no
answer.
After Inner City Press asked
the UN about Ban Ki-hi having
writing and signed
a letter to Ban Ki-moon
to join the UN
Global Compact --
involved in other Ban Ki-moon
scandals -- and they refused
to answer that, Inner City
Press asked Ban's spokesperson
when was the last time Ban
Ki-moon spoke with Ban Ki-ho.
Ban's
spokesperson told Inner City
Press he had “no
clue.”
Ban Ki-moon has
similarly denied contacts with
his nephew Dennis Bahn,
recently fined over $500,000
for forging documents to sell
real estate in Vietnam,
in connection with which he
was quoted that Ban Ki-moon
could get Qatar's sovereign
wealth fund to buy the
building.
As Ban
Ki-moon's time at the UN ran
down, and he closed the UN
Press Briefing Room for a
Korean-only press conference
on December 20, his
spokespeople said that Ban
Ki-ho is no longer with one of
the two companies, KD Power,
then used this to claim he no
longer does business in
Myanmar.
But Bosung
Powertec still does, and
the UN has refused
to explain Ban Ki-ho
being on a “UN delegation” in
Myanmar, nor who else from the
UN was on the delegation.
Meanwhile Ban
Ki-moon promoted his own son
in law, Siddharth Chatterjee,
to the top UN job in Kenya
without recusing himself. But
that is another
story of Ban Ki-moon's
nepotism and corruption, which
we will pursue. Watch this
site.
***
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