In
UN Bribery Case
of Ng Lap Seng,
UNOSSC Arises, Sold Access, Withheld Skerrit Doc from
ICP
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo here
UNITED NATIONS,
July 13 –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.
Inevitably, the disgraced and
now unreachable UN Office of
South South Cooperation -
which has never held a press
conference - came up. It was
described, apparently without
irony, as all about helping
the poor. But as Inner City
Press exposed
in 2016, even under UN
restrictions for its
anti-corruption coverage,
UNOSSC charged $100,000 for
access to UN officials and
business people, for example
at an event in Benin.
Also, ironic in light of
UNDP's Simon Hannaford's
upcoming testimony, as Inner
City Press reported "The UN
Development Program, rather
than provide to Inner City
Press a copy of the document
it signed with Dominica
Prime Minister Roosevelt
Skerrit, instead took
its South South office website
off-line from October 31
through November 1 (photo here).
This is called a cover-up. A
full week after Inner City
Press' written request to UNDP
for a copy of the document
UNDP (listed) official Teresa
Liu signed with now-indicted
Ng and Dominica PM Skerrit,
the document has yet to be
provided. So at the UN noon
briefing on November 6, Inner
City Press again asked UN
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
previously spokesman for UNDP.
He said he would “call” the
Office for South South
Cooperation, but then argued
it is not a UNDP office “as
such.” Video here."
Also on July 12, a still
existing group Lorenzo founded
and used, the "Public Private
Alliance Foundation" arose, as
well as the fact that a UN
official is scheduled to
testify on July 13: Simon
Hannaford, the chief legal
officer of the UN Development
Program. But there's a
problem, beyond the absurdity
of presenting the UN as a
clear, rules-based victim of
the alleged corruption when
it's the UN lack of rules that
allowed and continues to allow
corruption. UNDP, Hannaford's
employer, is listed as a
collaborator of the
Lorenzo-founded Public Private
Alliance Foundation, here.
We'll have more on this. The
"Montessori Model UN" also
arose, and this entity on
which Inner City Press
reported in May 2016 already
then under UN censorship
restrictions shows how
UNreformed the UN is. Months
after Lorenzo was indicted,
this group was still holding
events, with links to the UN
Correspondents Association -
Inner City Press reported
on a now-removed "website, with
photos of Ban Ki-moon
and Garcia and a UN
Correspondents
Association member who
while an UNCA
Executive Committee
member attended
indicted Ng Lap Seng's
August 2015 Macau
event, saying
on its website as of
May 6, 2016 that
it 'in
collaboration with the
Permanent Mission of
Grenada to the United
Nations and the
Montessori Model
United Nations
organized a High-level
Meeting on Media,
Education and Global
Governance for the
UNSDG at the New York
Hilton Hotel. The
key note speakers
included H.E. Mr.
Carlos Alberto Rojas
Santos, Deputy
Permanent
Representative of
Honduras to the United
Nations; Mrs. Marcela
Suazo, Director of
South-South Unit,
UNFPA; Mr. Diego Diaz,
Trade Commissioner of
Guatemala, Trade
Office in New
York; Mr. Julio
Pujols, Counsellor of
the Dominican Republic
to the United Nations;
Mr. Haliscelik
Kahraman, New York
& UN Bureau Chief-
Turkish Radio and
Television- TRTWorld;
and Mr. Yuntao Guo,
Secretary General of
the Global Governance
for the United Nations
Sustainable
Development Goals.' But
GG-UNSDG's website's administrator
is Francis Lorenzo, who had pleaded
guilty to UN bribery
charges. Another
connection to Ng Lap
Seng is Christian
Batres, involved in
the website and in Sun
Kian Ip Foundation
before it. As Inner
City Press reported,
before and after its
eviction by Ban
Ki-moon, everything is
for sale in Ban's UN.
We'll have more on
this. Ban's
Gallach and
Dujarric have
defended the
continuation
of South South
News with a UN
office while
Inner City
Press is
evicted and
restricted,
now wil play
dumb on this
new corruption
as moneyed
South South
News issued a
statement
attack unnamed
independent
journalists -
Ban's UN has
come to this,
with big Gulf
and western
media
conflicted out
since South
South News
funded the UN
Correspondents
Association
they use to
attack their
independent
competitors -
to this has
the UN sunk."
We'll have
more on this.
On July 12 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.
Counsel
to Ng Lap Seng
Park Jensen
Bennett
Partners Tai H
Park and
Douglas Jensen
in New York
The Law Firm
of Hugh H Mo
Hugh H Mo in
New York
Shapiro Arato
Partner
Alexandra
Shapiro in New
York
For the
Department of
Justice
Assistant US
attorneys
Douglas
Zolkind, Janis
Echenberg and
Daniel
Richenthal of
the US
Attorney’s
Office for the
Southern
District of
New York
Trial attorney
David Last, on
detail with
the criminal
division fraud
section's FCPA
unit.
***
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