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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
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UN GATE, June 12 – The United Nations under Antonio Guterres has thumbed its nose at local laws, like Guterres' own guards keeping their gym open on 42nd Street when all other gyms in New York City were ordered closed.

  But Guterres himself is lazy and, his staff say, racist. Now while New York City is trying to re-open, he has kept the UN virtual and even more unaccountable than usual, at least to August.

His letter has been leaked to Inner City Press, which also on June 4 first published his order to staff to not protest the murder of George Floyd even while banned from the UN by Guterres, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming, 710 days and counting:

"Dear New York-based Colleagues,  We have been successfully operating via telecommuting and other  arrangements for the past three months.  I thank you once again for your flexibility and commitment during these challenging times and wish to assure you that your health and safety continue to be my top priority.   After consulting with senior management and our medical services regarding the COVID-19 situation, I have decided to extend the current telecommuting arrangements at the Headquarters complex through 31 July 2020.

We will continue to review these arrangements and will provide advance notice should there be any easing or further extension of these measures.   In the meantime, we are actively preparing the buildings for a phased return.  Our plan consists of four phases.  During the current phase (Phase Zero), our aim is to keep our footprint at the Headquarters complex below 200 people – staff and delegates.

 The Department of Operational Support is doing a deep cleaning of the premises, placing signage around the buildings to guide staff on physical distancing, and making other arrangements to lower the exposure risk for returning personnel and delegates, which we envisage would start in Phase Two when we will gradually move from 10 to 40 per cent occupancy.

  Although we have not yet set a date for when we will move into Phase One, I would like to provide some information about what you can expect.  During Phase One, only those functions that need to be performed on site will be conducted on site.

 The vast majority of staff will continue to telecommute, and there must be a compelling reason for personnel to be present in the buildings.  In this phase, no more than 400 people should be at the Headquarters complex on any given day, and physical distancing will be strictly enforced for common spaces.

   The Crisis Operations Group is currently conducting an on-site requirement assessment in order to determine which functions will be performed on site during Phase One.  Managers will be in touch with all personnel who will come to the buildings during this period to coordinate the details.  Detailed guidelines for those who will be asked to return to the workplace will be shared in the coming weeks, and further town hall meetings will be organized to respond to your questions and concerns. Information on the various phases is available on iSeek and at the COVID-19 website. Please rest assured that we will communicate with you well in advance of moving into Phase One, and later into Phase Two.... Yours sincerely, António Guterres." Totally corrupt. We'll have more on this.Three men in shackles charged with ATM skimming on Thanksgiving Eve came into and soon left the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrates Court.

One had a French translator and a free lawyer; the other two retained and paid their own counsel.

   Their names were Mircea Constantinescu, Alin Hanes-Calugaru and Dragos Diaconu. Each was dressed in beige prison garb, and each was described in the underlying indictment. Constantinescu "a/k/a 'Sobo' shipped a credit card point-of-sale terminal used to fashion skimming devices from a shipping facility in or around Mt. Pocono, Pennsylvania to Veracruz, Mexico, on or about June 26, 2018."

    Hanes-Calugaru for his part "installed skimming devices on an ATM in or around Canterbury, Connecticut on or about January 7 and 14, 2017."

     Diaconu "used fraudulent debit cards to withdraw cash from victim accountholders' bank accounts using ATMs in or around Chattanooga and Ooltewah, Tennessee or about about June 2 and 3, 2018."   

All three were detained. Two will have a bail hearing on December 6 before SDNY Judge Laura T. Swain who has already denied bond in the case to Nikolaos Limberatos a/k/a Nicu Limberto, on the grounds that the US would not seek his extradition from Greece if he managed to flee there.

  Judge Swain did, however, grant co-defendant Andrew Eliopoulos' request to travel to Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving.

  All three defendants are slated to appear before Judge Swain on January 9, 2020. The case is US v. Constantinescu, et al., 19-cr-651 (Swain). 

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