On
Ban Ki-moon
Family Indictments, ICP Asks UN Spox,
No Comment, Refers Qs to
Seoul
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 11 – 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.
Inner City
Press obtained the 39-page
indictment from multiple
sources and is putting
it online here in Scribd,
now also here
in pdf.
On January
11, Inner City Press asked Ban
Ki-moon's longtime spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, still at
the UN for at least six
months, about the UN aspects
of the indictment. Why didn't
the UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services act? What
of the involvement of the UN's
ongoing landlord Colliers
International, which employed
Ban's nephew?
Dujarric said he had no
comment on the indictment, and
purported to refer all the UN
questions to Ban's new
spokesman in Seoul, Lee
Do-woon. Tweeted
video here. We'll have
more on this cover up.
Earlier,
Inner City Press asked the Ambassadors
of France and the UK about the
indictments. French Ambassador
Francois Delattre said he
respects the question, but has
no comment.
UK Ambassador
Matthew Rycroft said he's seen
the reports but has no
comment. From the UK
transcript:
Inner City Press:
The indictment of Ban
Ki-moon’s nephew and brother
on charges of seemingly using
their family’s reputation to
sell a building in Vietnam.
What does the UK think of
that? And do you think it
shows any need – OIOS never
investigated it, never acted
on it – does the UN need to be
reformed?
I am aware of the reports, but
I don’t have any comment on
it.
Tweeted
video here.
In
December there were multiple
meetings and stakeouts and
portray unveilings and even a
concert singing the praises of
Ban Ki-moon's UN tenure. Now
what? Can the UN be cleaned
up?
Paragraph
15 says Bahn and Ban Ki Sang
used "personal connections" of
their "own family" -- that is,
Ban Ki-moon.
In
Paragraph 18, Dennis says the
deal would only get done "based
on our family's reputation"
with Qatar. Ban Ki-moon took
flights paid for by Qatar, not
disclosed until Inner
City Press exposed them
(credited
by Newsweek, here) --
then got evicted
from UN.
The real estate
firms which employed Ban
Ki-moon's nephew, referred it
in Paragraph 5, is UN landlord
Colliers International. This
is a UN case, another case
involving the UN and Ban
Ki-moon.
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.
UN
transcript here.
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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