In
1st UN Bribery Case, UN Won't
Explain Giving
Too Few Docs, &
Not To Defendant
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
February 22 – The UN bribery
case against Macau-based
businessman Ng Lap Seng is
moving toward trial, even as
UN Under Secretaries General
like Cristina Gallach who are
implicated in it continue in
place, still censoring the
Press which covers the case.
On February
20 in the US District Court
for the Southern District of
New York, lawyers for Ng Lap
Seng objected to
the UN giving fewer documents than
requested, and now, only to the
government. Not only has
the UN become even
less cooperative
on this case
involving bribery
in the UN - its
holdover
spokespeople
won't answer
basic questions
about it. From
the February
21 UN Transcript:
Inner
City Press:
this question
has to do with
this Ng Lap
Seng case,
which is
moving towards
trial.
There was a
letter filed
yesterday by
the defense,
by the lawyer
for Ng Lap
Seng, saying
that they are
disputing both
that the UN
has fully
complied with
the discovery
request, and
they're
questioning
why the
discovery
wasn't given
to them as the
defendant, but
was instead
given to the
Government,
whereas prior
documents had
been given
directly to
the defense.
And they say
it hasn't been
explained to
them.
So, what I'm
wondering is,
given that the
UN talks about
due process,
et cetera, ask
OLA [Office
for Legal
Affairs],
given this
public
disputing of
the UN
complying and
cooperating
with the
bribery case
and giving the
documents to
the defendant
that has
requested
them, what
explains this
change?
Deputy
Spokesman:
Well, I
wouldn't have
any comment
about what
other lawyers
are saying on
this, beyond
saying that
the United
Nations has
been complying
with the
requests made
in this case.
Inner
City Press:
OK, can
you confirm
that the UN
was providing
in the past,
it's the
documents
requested to
the defense
and has now
changed
policies and
is only
providing them
to the
Government,
and what
explains that?
Deputy
Spokesman:
What I can say
is, on this
matter, as
we've been
stating in the
past and I'll
reiterate it,
that the
requests that
come from the
judicial
authorities in
this case are
ones that we
are complying
with.
On
January 30 in the US District
Court for the Southern
District of New York, US
Attorney Preet Bhahara filed
more detailed information
including concerning South
South News, described as Ng's
bribery conduit, which Gallach
has nevertheless left in its
UN office while evicting and
restricting Inner City Press
which asked her about it, and
her own connection to Ng Lap
Seng's South South Awards.
Bhahara's
filing, calling South South
News "NGO-1," states as to
co-defendant Jeff C. Yin:
"the defendant
agreed to and did cause bribe
payments from NGO-1, meant for
the Dominican Ambassador
[Francis Lorenzo, who has
pleaded guilty], to be made to
(i) third-parties to cover the
Dominican Ambassador’s
personal expenses (e.g., his
mortgage, see Bates
0000569362-0000569363,
0000132016-0000132017), and
(ii) family members of the
Dominican Ambassador,
specifically, his siblings
(who are identified in
discovery, e.g., Bates
0001003479-0001003770,
0001031249-0001031288)....
the defendant
both caused NGO-1 to pay him
in cash (or checks made out to
cash or petty cash) and made
false and/or misleading
statements to his accountant
concerning the amount and
source of his income. More
specifically, we expect that
the evidence will show that
(a) with respect to his tax
returns for calendar years
2013 and 2014, the defendant
informed his accountant of
income he received from the
Macau Real Estate Development
Company while entirely
omitting income he received
from NGO-1, thereby causing
his accountant to file tax
returns that omitted the
defendant’s income from
NGO-1 for these years."
Gallach's DPI leaves NGO-1 in
its UN office, while
continuing to restrict Inner
City Press more than a year
after it sought to cover a
meeting in the UN Press
Briefing Room to see the
relationship between Ng's
bribery vehicle and Gallach's
and DPI's and apparently the
38th floor's correspondents
"interlocutor." This is
disgusting.
(As is Gallach
promoting herself attending -
for the UN! - a "Global
Festival of Ideas" event in
March 2017, here.
Is the "idea" corruption? Or
censorship?)
But Inner
City Press can't even ASK the
UN about this on February 1,
because the UN's noon briefing
is canceled due to an 11 am
"press encounter" with Antonio
Guterres, who is unlikely to
address, or take Press
questions on, this UN
corruption case. The old
guard, implicated, is
polluting the new
administration.
On January
27 in the US District Court
for the Southern District of
New York an order issued
sealing but setting a date to
unseal "UN Documents" 1 and
2. Here
is the UN's own Office of
Internal Oversight Services
audit of aspects of Ng Lap
Seng's purchase of the UN, see
esp Paragraphs
37-40 and 20b regarding
Gallach.
Gallach's
Department of Public of
Information on January 27
prevented Inner City Press
from covering a Holocaust
event by new UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres, here.
Gallach's no
due process eviction
and ongoing
restriction of Inner
City Press was done with a
blatant conflict of interest:
she is named
in the audit (as USG of
DPI), and Inner City Press had
asked
her about her links with Ng Lap
Seng.
(In other Ng Lap
Seng diplomatic fall-out
related investigations,
Dominica's Roosevelt Skerrit,
who attended Ng's scam Macau
"UN" event, is under fire for
other passports now more
timely than ever, here.)
There is
of course a second UN-related
bribery case getting started,
against Ban Ki-moon's brother
Ban Ki Sang and nephew Dennis
Bahn, who used the UN General
Assembly and UNSG Ban
Ki-moon's name for real estate
fraud. And here,
from South Korea.
Here in the
first of the two UN bribery
cases, against Ng Lap Seng, is
from the January 27 SDNY
United States District Judge's
order:
"The Government
requested and I granted
protective orders delaying the
production by the Government
of two documents produced to
the Government by the United
Nations. The first protective
order related to a document
discussed during the status
conference held on December
8, 2016, (“UN Document #1”)
and the second related to a
document referenced in the
Government’s email to the
defense dated January 18,
2017, (“UN Document #2”).
During the
December 8 conference, I
stated that I would review UN
Document #1 again to “make a
determination whether six
weeks is enough time” for the
production of that document in
advance of trial. (Doc. 350 at
10:15-17.) I have taken
another look at UN Document #1
and have reviewed UN Document
#2 to determine how much time
in advance of trial the
Government should produce
these documents to the
defense."
We'll have
more on this.
As
the UN bribery scandal gathered
force Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon called for an audit by
the UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services of Sheri
Yan's Global Sustainability
Foundation (GSF), David Ng Lap
Seng's Sun Kian Ip Group and its
affiliates including the "World
Harmony Foundation" and South
South News, among others.
The audit, completed
early this year but first
put online by Inner City
Press, directly criticizes
Cristina Gallach, the Under
Secretary General for
Communications and Public
Information, Paragraphs 37-40 --
and 20b.
This last concerns the lack of
any due diligence by the UN
Department of Public Information
under Under Secretary General
Cristina Gallach of Ng Lap
Seng's GWF's sponsorship of the
“Ark of Return” ceremony.
Now in December Ng has
tried to get the superseding
indictment dismissed, and the US
government has opposed it.
The government writes, “The key
players remain the same (the
defendant as the bribepayer and
Yin as his primary
co-conspirator and deputy, the
Antiguan Ambassador as the
recipient of bribes, and the
Dominican Ambassador as a party
who was paid by the defendant
and served his interests); the
defendant’s alleged goals remain
the same (namely, the obtaining
of formal UN support for the
Macau Conference Center); and
the means and methods allegedly
used by the defendant remain the
same (including the defendant’s
use of NGO-1 to funnel bribe
payments).”
NGO-1, South South
News, remains in its UN office,
while Inner City Press which has
been covering this case, and UN
links to it, was evicted and
remains restricted 10 months
later. When Inner group which
put Ban together with Ng Lap
Seng and Vivian Wang at Cipriani
on 42 Street, tuxedo-ed UN/CA
thugs came out and smashed
Inner City Press'
Periscope-broadcasting camera,
video here.
Ban was already selling
the UN as far back as 2009:
From October
23, 2009, this Inner City
Press report concerning Ng
Lap Seng's partner Frank Liu,
buying the UN under
“unblemished” Ban Ki-moon:
“UNITED NATIONS, October 23 --
After announcing Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon's
participation in a UN Day
concert later in the day, Ban's
Associate Spokesperson Farhan
Haq declined to answer Inner
City Press' questions about
whether the concert's sponsors,
including the World Harmony
Foundation, Frank Liu and/or the
World Eminence Chinese Business
Forum, had receive payments from
businessmen, and if any of these
were scheduled for photo-op with
Mr. Ban.
Haq, in a nearly empty
noon press briefing with no time
constraints, nevertheless said
that the questions would be
answered at another press
conference on Friday afternoon,
"if you are there." ... An
October 23 press release by the
World Harmony Foundation states
that "Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon... tolled the bell
signifying world harmony."
The press release was handed to
Inner City Press at a surreal
breakfast forum held by the
WECBA and Frank Liu in Room 6 of
the UN's Delegates' Dining Room.
A businessman receiving an award
stood at the front at a podium
with the UN flag and intoned,
"please remember that Chinese
businessmen are the kindest
people in the world."
Another speaker said that more
people dying every year from
obesity than hunger, and urged
those in the audience not to eat
too much. The Ambassador of the
Dominican Republic urged the
assembled businessmen to join
the UN Global Compact.”
That would be Francis
Lorenzo, of South South News,
who has pleaded guilty. (Under
Gallach, South South News still
has its UN office, while Inner
City Press reporting on it
remains evicted).
In late November a superceding
indictment was filed which makes
Gallach's malfeasance even
clearer. The indictment now
includes the US Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act and specifies that
South South News (NGO-1), which
Gallach has left in its office
while evicting Inner City Press
which asked her about her
connection to them, paid Ng Lap
Seng's assistant in cash in
order to evade taxes.
The “honorary president”
of South South News, who has
pleaded guilty, was also
involved in tax evasion. How
corrupt can the UN be, to take
no action on this bribery and
tax evasion which corrupted the
UN, while eviciting and
restricting the investigative
Press which asked about it?
Gallach Must Go.
***
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