LITERARY UN GATE
/ GUTTERS -- In
Brooklyn's
Cadman Plaza, outside the
EDNY courthouse where
Malaysian Roger Ng was on
trial in place of the
fugitive Jho Low, Kurt
Wheelock met a lone
Malaysian protester with a
hand-written sign, "We want
our money back."
Kurt asked to
interview him on flip-phone
video but the guy said he'd
rather start off-camera. So
they did. It soon emerged
that the guy was serious. He
wanted to track down what
Jho Low had done with the
money stolen from the
Malaysia people.
Not
just the Wolf of Wall Street
film, whose rights had been
seized by the US Justice
Department, and the huge
catering and "models" bills
in Las Vegas which would
never be recouped. But where
was the rest of it?
Kurt from his prior
journalistic beat, cut off
so abruptly by ouster and
ban by UNSG Antonio
Guterres' guards, had some
knowledge.
Jho
Low had loudly "saved" a
UN-affiliated news service,
and given other money
resulting in a press
conference the UN let him
have in its Palais in
Geneva, like it let
pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell
have one Kurt had attended
in the Glass House in New
York. But how to track the
money?
The UN had instituted
a ban on Kurt entering any
of its premises worldwide,
even virtually by WebEx.
(He's someone gotten into a
virtual press conference by
the UN's oft-raping mission
in Mali, and the
spokesperson there had
belated answered his
question by email, but after
that, no more. UNOV in
Vienna had told him, We are
unable to let you in.)
But Michael Randall
Long had yet to be put on
the UN's blacklist. So Kurt
took the Malaysian, who'd
belatedly given Kurt his
name, Farish Chong, to
Long's office, over the Ali
Baba fruit stand across from
the SDNY courthouse.
Kurt went
back to work at the PACER
terminal in the 500 Pearl
press room, so that Long
could either sign or not
sign up the Malaysian as a
client. Once that was done,
either way, the three of
them could talk together.
Long texted Kurt just
after 5 pm, just before Kurt
head over to the SDNY
Magistrates Court. "We've
signed a retainer, total
contingency. We're both
still here if you can come
over." To Kurt it was a
no-brainer, to pursue a case
that could lead him back to
the UN, versus what would
probably be another crack
selling Violation of
Supervised Release tale of
woe in the Mag Court. Kurt
headed out onto Worth
Street, past the playground
and the ping-pong players
and up the wooden stairs by
the fruit stand to Michael
Long's office.
* * *
While Michael Randall
Long and his new client
Farish Chong headed up to
the UN to try to track down
the Malaysia money the UN
took and stole, Kurt headed
back to EDNY for the cross
examination of Tim Leissner.
Roger Ng's lawyer
hammered away, about how
many times Leissner lied. To
FBI agents who arrested him,
to Kimora Lee Simmons
Leissner, to religion
itself. Leissner had
converted to Islam - twice,
as it happened - and it had
been in search of romance.
But you lie to the
ones you love - right? he
was asked.
I
do not know how to answer
that Sir, Leissner replied.
He had prepared for this.
But it was not going well.
* * *
Martin Randall Long
had an idea how to get into
the UN. After a few calls to
soften things up, or at
least set up landline
numbers inside he'd be able
to tell the UN guards to
call to verify who he was --
this while Kurt heard
Goldman Sachs' Leissner
grilled about photo-shopping
documents as part of his
scams -- he and the
Malaysian appeared at the UN
gate.
We are hear to speak
with Mr. de Souza, Long
announced, naming Antonio
Guterres long time Lusophone
consigliere most
recently seen next to Big
Tony at the failed UN
sit-down in the Security
Council.
A UN guard in a white
shirt came to front. It was
Sullivan, who while
previously on UN time told
UN branded glow in the dark
sneakers with a NFL
concussion huckster and was
now rehabilitated, with Kurt
out of the way. Out of sight
out of mind.
If you say so,
Sullivan snarked. I'll have
to call upstairs.
Tell him that I have
with me a Malaysian client,
whose name I will not yet
give, with information about
MH Seventeen, the plane the
Russian separatists shot
down. Mr. Guterres could use
the info to get the Russians
to stop insulting him.
The Russians could
have blocked Guterres I or
at least Guterres II. That
they didn't showed out lax
their New York diplomacy had
gotten. They'd thought that
because Guterres full
throatedly supported the
Chinese dictators he'd stick
with Putin even when there
was more money on the other
side of the table. They had
mis-read Big Tony. This was
why twelve diplomats should
be packing up to leave, not
the US theater.
Sullivan called de
Souza. After a time Long and
the Malaysian were told to
come in and wait in the
black and white checker
board lobby. There was not
yet an Iranian carpet
portrait of Guterres up but
Long could picture it
already, with the double
chin and face spots
photoshopped out a la
Tim Leissner.
De
Sousa's factotum, limping
slightly, came toward them.
"Mister de Souza will see
you in his office. He is
fully committed to getting
to the bottom of MH-17."
"I'm sure he is,"
Long replied. "It's
information he and his boss
can use."
"We heard you," the
factotum said sternly. "Loud
and clear."
* * *
On
the UN's 38th floor Michael Randall Long and
his client were taken to the left, straight
into the office of Antonio Guterres, looking
out over Queens and Long Island. Guterres was
plopped behind a big desk, no computer on it,
yelling into a landline.
De
Souza gestured with his head at Long, and
Guterres hung up the phone. "I'm told you have
information about the shooting down of the
Malaysian plane," Guterres said. "Information
that ties it to the Kremlin, even to Vladimir
himself."
"My
client does," Long replied. "But in exchange
the Malaysians need to know what happened to
the money Jho Low gave to the UN from 1MDB and
how to get it back."
"I
was in Geneva at the time," Guterres said
grandly. "That wouldn't be much trouble, as
long as we kept it quiet. It's that this
Russia information could be very useful right
now --"
De
Souza cut in, so it would be him saying it,
not his Boss. "Vladimir Putin, Lavrov and
their Ambassador here are implying that can
retroactively veto the second term --"
Guterres
said, "After we made the deal, the meeting in
St Petersburg, given them posts in the UN for
their operatives..."
For
once, Long knew something about the UN, having
gotten it from Kurt Wheelock who was still
obsessed with such things, even though or
because banned. "I see the Americans told one
of your staff they have to leave," he said.
"There
was
no reason to go public with that!" Guterres
said bitterly.
"It's
a difficult job," de Souza offered. "Caught
between three powers."
"Two
and a half," Guterres corrected him. "The
Russians are too big for their britches. Now
about this information..."
Kurt had first heard
of Jho Low while still in
the UN, before he was thrown
out. Jho Low appeared at a
UN press conference in front
of the ubiquitous and now
defiled logo.
#TheWeaselOfWallStreet, 1st
in a new series
Inner City Press is also covering
US v. Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the
self-rapped Crocodile of Wall Street, a
story here,
song here
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