| On UNOPS
Corruption Exposed by Inner City Press
Vanshelboim Extradition OKed Now Staff
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
UN GATE, Oct 22 –
In the United Nations under
Antonio Guterres, there is
nothing but failure and
excuses and fundraising on
crises like Gaza, Ukraine,
Syria, Burma, Haiti and
Cameroon. The nearly
over UNGA week, with sleeping
Japanese journalists and
Guterres lying about press
freedom and UN equipment shows
it.
There is impunity
for sexual abuse by
peacekeepers and UN staff like
Juan Carlos Cunillera, just
"along for the ride" during
the UN
sex-in-the-van exposed
by Inner City Press.
But now as we
again look at and ask about
Guterres' omission of his
links to UN briber CEFC China
Energy, leading to him banning
the Press (and Melissa Fleming
continuing the ban, not even answering
a law firm's pro bono letter),
on April 17, 2022 we published
on other officials - including
long time UNOPS operative
Vitaly Vanshelboim (whom Inner
City Press covered in
connection with UNOPS gag
orders before being banned
from UN by corrupt Guterres.)
We noted
that Vanshelboim's skeeze in
the S3i scam of UNOPS's Grete
Faremo.
While
others then noted for example
that a long time member of the
UN Correspondents Association
Gloria Starr Kins played a
role in hooking up the fraud,
they don't mention UNCA and
their role in banning the
Press. On December 13, 2024,
UNCA will put access to
Guterres up for sale again at
Cipriani: no questions have
been answered.
Now this: Spanish
judges say Vanshelboim will be
extradited on three of the six
charges against him there:
soliciting and receiving
bribes as a member of an
organization that receives
federal funds, wire fraud
through honest services, and
money laundering. But --
Vanshelboim’s lawyers have
three days to appeal the
extradition ruling.
Early on October
22, this from UNOPS staff to
Inner City Press:
This decision
marks a turning point in one
of the most controversial
corruption scandals within the
U.N. system. Once in U.S.
custody, Vanshelboim could
choose to cooperate with
federal prosecutors to
mitigate his sentence — a
common practice in U.S.
criminal proceedings. Such
cooperation would likely lead
to new revelations about his
network of associates,
potentially implicating
figures such as Abdoul Dieng
and other UNOPS insiders who
benefited from or helped
conceal the illicit operations
during the S3i era. The
court approved the extradition
for only some of the five
counts in the U.S. indictment,
rejecting the remaining
charges. [Echoes of SBF's
extradiction and the dropping
of the campaign contribution
charges]
The extradition
could open the floodgates of
accountability within UNOPS,
where internal oversight has
long been criticized as weak
or compromised. As the case
proceeds in the United States,
several current and former
UNOPS officials may now find
themselves under growing
scrutiny — and potentially
facing justice.
First
among them - Guterres himself.
Perhaps
that explains: From
Guterres? Silence, no answers
to Press - which has asked him
and Stephane Dujarric and
Melissa Fleming every day for
the past month -
censorship and corruption. A
fish rots from the head.
We'll
have more on this.
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a
month helps keep us going and grants you
access to exclusive bonus material on our
Patreon page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 130222 NY NY 10013
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2025 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
