After
Bribery Conviction, UN Told
Reuters It Wants
to Get Paid, ICP Asks Why,
Video Here
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video
UNITED NATIONS,
July 28 – After the UN bribery
verdict of six guilty counts
against Ng Lap Seng was
delivered by the jury late on
July 27, UN
Spokesman
Farhan Haq who
has repeatedly
dodged
questions
about the case
from Inner
City Press was
quoted
by Reuters
that the UN
was "a victim
of these
crimes" and later
that "We are
exploring the
possibility of
requesting
restitution as
a victim to
these crimes,
including
recovering
expenses
incurred to
provide the
requested
cooperation."
Inner
City Press
asked UN
Spokesman Haq
on July 28
to explain how
the UN is the
victim, and
how it dares
say it should
be get for
corruption.
Video 8
from Minute
8:40. Haq
said, This is
the position
of our Legal
Council. Now
Inner City Press
has asked
above. Watch
this site. The
UN even
refused to
tell the
prosecution
whom it spoke
to for its
Task Force
Report, which
said it has no
ethical
standards. The
UN will ask
for money,
while paying
nothing to the
10,000 people
it killed in
Haiti? Reuters
doesn't even
raise that -
it has a
conflict of
interest.
UN official
Ion Butnaru
put the name
of Ng's
company Sun
Kian Ip Group
into a General
Assembly
resolution
long after it
was voted on,
took a free
trip to Macau
and an iPad
there. Victim?
Ng's company
South South
News bought
full page ads
in the ball
program of the
UN
Correspondents
Association,
then went to
their ball at
Cipriani and
got photos
with then
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon.
(Reuters then
as now had a
seat on UNCA's
board,
something not
disclosed in
its coverage
of Ng and the
UN). A current
UN official
Meena Sur was
shown in the
trial to have
held on Ng's
brochure for
his planned
Macau
conference
Center. The UN
remains
UNreformed.
Inner City
Press, which
has covered
the scandal
from the
beginning and
remains
restricted by
the UN for its
coverage,
rushed down to
the courthouse
and asked Ng
Lap Seng, as
he left by the
side door to
Worth Street,
what he thinks
of the UN and
those there
who took his
money and
favors, a list
well beyond
John Ashe and
Francis
Lorenzo.
Periscope
video here.
He did not
answer,
understandable.
He will be
back in court
on August 7
for arguments
on if his
house arrest
can continue.
Before Ng
left, Inner
City Press
witnessed his
lawyers
leaving. They
told the judge
they will
appeal. But
now that Ng is
guilty, will
the UN act on
those exposed
as corrupt,
and reverse
its
censorship?
Ng Lap
Seng's $3 billion UN
convention center plan had
been assisted by Meena Sur,
still working for the UN
Department of General Assembly
and Conference Management.
Inner City Press asked the UN
spokesman Farhan Haq, who
dodged by saying the UN was
waiting for the verdict. But
the UN is not on trial,
because it has and cited
immunity.
Likewise, high UN
official Navid
Hanif attended Ng Lap
Seng's murky event in Macau in
August 2015, and remains at at
the UN. Spokesman Haq refused
to answer about him, while
telling Inner City Press that
lower UN staff member Frances
Fuller “separated from
service” in September 2016,
just after Inner City Press
asked about her.
Francis Lorenzo,
who took more money from Ng
than the now deceased John
Ashe, was given
a UN.org email address by
DGACM despite never being
pictured among Ashe's Special
Advisers, and never giving up
his day job as the Dominican
Republic's Deputy Permanent
Representative.
Even on July 26,
DGACM's Executive Officer told
Inner City Press that the UN
still hands such UN credential
to anyone whom a President of
the General Assembly tells
them too. So nothing has been
reformed.
The Department of
Public Information under Cristina
Gallach took Ng Lap
Seng's money for its slavery
memorial, and allowed fraudulent
events in the UN lobby.
But UN lead spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, who allowed the
content of Ng's South South
News to be included in UNTV
archives under his watch, said
this was just an issue of
“judgment,” not malfeasance.
The UN
Correspondents Association, to
whom Dujarric “lent”
the UN Press Briefing Room
then evicted and still
restricts Inner City Press for
seeking to cover the event
to see if they discussed
taking South South News' money
and providing a venue for Ng's
photo op with Ban Ki-moon, did
not have a single member
correspondent covering the
month-long UN bribery case.
Other dubious events were
being hosted.
And so, while
awaiting the jury's verdict on
Ng Lap Seng - which may be not
guilty given how corrupt the
UN and the star witness
against him Francis Lorenzo
have been shown to be - it is
clear that the UN has not
reformed and remains
corruption and a censor, seven
months into the reign of “new”
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres. It is the UN that
should be prosecuted, or
invited to leave. Watch this
site.
Legal footnotes:
counsel to Ng Lap Seng, Park
Jensen Bennett, Partners Tai H
Park and Douglas Jensen in New
York; and Alexandra Shapiro in
New York; Assistant US
attorneys Douglas Zolkind,
Janis Echenberg and Daniel
Richenthal of the US
Attorney’s Office, David Last,
on detail with the criminal
division fraud section's FCPA
unit.
***
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