In
UN Bribery Case, Ng Lap
Seng Compared to Ted
Turner of UN
Foundation, Lorenzo's SSN
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo here
UNITED NATIONS,
July 12 –In the ongoing UN
bribery trial of Ng Lap Seng,
on July 12 government witness
Francis Lorenzo described how
he named the "bribery conduit"
South South News, and the
origins of the MDG / South
South Awards which came to
include UN officials from
Cristina Gallach through
Susana Malcorra to Sigrid
Kaag, as well as Ban Ki-moon.
While Lorenzo repeatedly
claimed to not remember
e-mails he had sent and
received, he bragged of
meeting Forest Cao and Ng Lap
Seng and traveling to Las
Vegas, Nevada, all supposedly
in order to combat poverty. He
said he had fun choosing bands
for the award shows, even
claiming he did it on behalf
of the Dominican Republic. Ng
Lap Seng's defense lawyer Tai
Park analogized Ng to Ted
Turner of the UN Foundation.
Troublingly, the government
appears poises to present the
UN, via a lawyer whom UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
when Inner City Press asked at
the UN noon briefing on July
12 declined to even confirm,
as a rule-based place that Ng
abused. But wasn't it the
Department of Public
Information's Cristina Gallach
who allowed Ng and his proxies
to buy events? Didn't the UN
defend the other corruption
groups named in court on July
12? We'll have more on this.
As Inner City Press first
reported on July 11 it then
emerged that the US Government
will be putting on a UN
witness, Simon Hannaford. He
is the chief legal officer of
the UN Development Program,
which played a role in the
dubious faux UN conference
held in Macau, and failed to
oversee the UN Office of South
South Cooperation. But
what about the
UN
Secretariat,
which doctored
a General
Assembly
document to
include the
name of Ng's
company? We'll
have more on
this - and
this: an email
was cited in
court on July
11 in which
Bangladesh's
then-Ambassador
Abulkalam
Abdul Momen
conspired with
Francis
Lorenzo on how
to insert a
paragraph from
the Macau
meeting into a
Group of 77
and China
resolution in
the General
Assembly. Back
in 2015, Inner
City Press
tweeted a photo
of Lorenzo,
John Ashe,
Monem and
still Dominica
Prime Minister
Skerrit, the
lone head of
state at the
Macau meeting.
While
reference was
made on July
11 to Antigua
selling
passports for
money, the
program of
Dominica -
though which
Ng, who later
glowered at
Inner City
Press - netted
one of his
five passports
was not
brought up.
Should the
prosecution
expand the
case, to this
and to target
the UNreformed
UN more
directly? In
court on July
11 the name of
Forest Cao was
repeatedly
cited. He
recruited for
South South
News and when
he died in
2014 South
South News,
through John
Ashe's then
spokesperson,
issued a
memorial video
inside the UN,
here.
In this video,
Forest Cao is
shown not only
with Sri
Lanka's
Mahinda
Rajapaksa but
also
Rajapaksa's UN
Ambassador
(and former UN
legal
official)
Palitha
Kohona, who rented
an apartment
from UN
Correspondents
Association
president
Giampaolo
Pioli. For
reporting
that, Pioli
vowed to use
the UN
Department of
Public
Information -
which also did
business with
Ng Lap Seng -
to get Inner
City Press out
of the UN.
This Pioli accomplished,
with ex-DPI
now UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric in
2016, when
Inner City
Press sought
to cover an
UNCA event in
the UN Press
Briefing Room
to see if and
how Ng Lap
Seng's and
UNCA member
South South
News' exposure
for corruption
was discussed.
We'll have
more on this.
***
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