Click for March 1, 2011 BloggingHeads.tv re Libya, Sri Lanka, UN Corruption by Inner City Press   2014: MRL on Beacon Reader

April 22, 2019

UN Bribery Caught on Wiretap of Patrick Ho and Yan Who Now Minimizes It Like Guterres SMH

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, Scope Audio

SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 15 – Patrick Ho was sentenced to 36 months in jail on March 25 for UN bribery and having "sold weapons enthusiastically," along with a $400,000 fine imposed by U.S. District Court for the Soutern District of New York Judge Loretta Preska. During his trial, covered every day by Inner City Press which was and is banned from entering the UN amid its reporting linking current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the scandal through the Gulbenkian Foundation from his he received payments undisclosed on his public financial form covering 2016, an audio clip was played for the jury. In it Ho discusses offering bribes to now deceased UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe, with Sheri Yan. Inner City Press is today uploading that audio, here.

  Yan pled guilty to bribing Ashe as part of the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery trial, which Inner City Press asked covered daily before it was roughed up and banned from the UN by Guterres. But now Yan in a prison novel and craven revisionist profile by Kirsty Needham, China correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, is claiming: "A related UN bribery investigation involving Ashe netted another conviction in March, with former Hong Kong politician Patrick Ho sentenced to three years.  Yan says she met Ho at a conference in Hong Kong she attended as chief executive of Ashe’s Global Sustainability Foundation. They later attended a public dinner in New York. They have “politely” spoken a few times.  “I did meet him – that is all.  "To say I am working with him to influence the UN is a very wrong statement.'" Apparently The Age has not heard the extended audio of Yan and Ho discussing quid pro quo bribery of Ashe. SMH - shaking my head. We'll have more on this. 

April 15, 2019

South Sudan UN Guterres Rep Shearer Refuses To Protect Machar After UN Covered Up Its Killings

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive audio, II

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 12 -- The UN of Secretary General Antonio Guterres has refused to answer Press questions about the murder of two South Sudan civilians by a UN peacekeeper from Rwanda, and a new case of UN sexual exploitation by an international staff member from Nigeria -- nationality undisclosed by Guterres' UN - in South Sudan. But while killing civilians and refusing Press questions about it, now there is a strike which has left the UN's vaunted Tomping camp uncleaned. The UN of Guterres refused to answer Inner City Press' simple questions about it. Now we explusively publish this second audio of Guterres' rep David Shearer, saying among other things that the UN can't / won't protect Riek Machar. So why is UNMISS taking $1 billion a year? Which isn't Guterres impeached? On April 11 we exclusively published this audio of Guterres' rep David Shearer, deriding IGAD as apathetic, praising now deposed Bashir, saying there is no pressure on Kiir. Shearer should be fired - and Guterres should be impeached. Watch this site for more audio.  Inner City Press as informed: "Dear Mathew,  Long time, there is a dispute between the cleaning contractor and  the worker. It is simple exploitation in the UNMISS. Their salary is 300 USD. However, they do not pay them in dollar. Just pay them by changing in black market in South Sudanese currency which is below 300 USD. The cleaner demanded their salary to be paid and requested UNMISS to support them. They strike today and will continue tomorrow. The below information is sent to UNMISS staff about the situation. The company should pay them their salary and stop changing the black market and paying their money.

April 8, 2019

UNSG Job Move Plan Delayed To Sept Uganda Wanted 4 Years Guterres Serves China and FrancAfrique From Montreal

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, 1st docs, II

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 6 – At the UN with Antonio Guterres 28 months into his term as Secretary General, there's talk of reform but little transparency. Now after Guterres changed his failed proposal to move UN jobs out of New York, Uganda and Geneva - switched to proposing the jobs go to, where else, Shenzhen in China, while Guterres covers up for convicted UN briber China Energy Fund Committee - this too has failed. The UN Budget Committee, favors in which Guterres sold out to then chair Cameroon for, has delayed Guterres' modified proposal until at least September. Uganda, whose foreign minister Sam Kutesa like Guterres has financial links to CEFC China Energy, wanted it put back a full four years.

Here was Uganda's draft, exclusively made public here by banned Inner City Press: "Having considered the report of the Secretary-General on the global service delivery model for the United Nations Secretariat,1 as well as the related report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, 1. Takes note of the report of the Secretary-General; 2. Also takes note of the report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions; 3. Notes with appreciation the intention of the Secretary-General to establish a global service delivery model for the United Nations Secretariat; 4. Regrets the lack of transparency in the process leading to the current proposals; 5. Requests the Secretary-General to put forward a new proposal for the global service delivery model, for the consideration and approval of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session, which retains and builds on the existing shared service centre of the United Nations Secretariat established in July 2010 by the General Assembly, through its resolution 64/269 of 24 June 2010, and which preserves the skills, knowledge and experience of staff currently implementing shared services." But for now Guterres' proposal is delayed until September 2019 for consideration. What bribes might be paid by then? There's been no audit of CEFC China Energy, and Guterres continues to ban the Press which reports on this. Guterres is corrupt. Inner City Press, which was roughed up and banned from the UN by Guterres amid its questions about his CEFC links, has obtained an advance copy of the UN Advisory Committee on Administration and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) review of Guterres' changes; a close observer summarizes that China to the side bought off Uganda to drop or mitigate its opposition to losing so many jobs. Meanwhile even the ACABQ has problems with putting the French language, FrancAfrique serving center in Montreal, many time zones away. From the advance ACABQ, which Inner City Press is exclusively putting online in full, Scribd

April 1, 2019

UN Guterres Told World to Join Him In Turning Off Lights Then Left Them On At UN and His $15M Mansion Earth Hour Hypocrisy

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, CJR Letter PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 30 – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the world, on video, to join the UN for an "urgent" Earth Hour and turn off the lights between 8:30 pm and 9:30 pm on March 30. But at the UN itself, the lights were ablaze through the entire hour, as live streamed by Inner City Press here. And up at the empty $15 million mansion Guterres sometimes lives in, on Sutton Place and 57th Street, the third story lights were on, and even a UN Security car in front: pure waste and hypocrisy. Periscope here. Before Inner City Press was roughed up by Guterres' Security on June 22 and July 3, 2018 and banned since then, it insistently asked for disclosure of how many of Guterres' publicly funded trips took him through his real home, Lisbon. The questions are not been answered by Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who on 2 November 2019 simply bicycled away as Inner City Press asked about Guterres' failure in Cameroon and attempt to get even Park East Synagogue to oust Inner City Press from covering his October 31 speech about tolerance.  Guterres' hypocrisy, specifically about the environmental and Earth Hour, was covered by the Columbia Journalism Review which wrote about his ouster of Inner City Press. But he just doesn't care, becuase he doesn't have to, legally, with impunity. He is corrupt. On Saturday 16 March 2019, the supposedly environmentalist UNSG Antonio Guterres arrived at the $15 million publicly funded mansion in which he lives alone in not one but two large four by four vehicles, with six guards. Video here. What a waste, what hypocrisy. This was two days after Guterres guards physically pushed Inner City Press out of the line for a press freedom event in the UN it was invited to and had a ticket for, then refused to provide the banned-by-Guterres list they said was the basis of their action. Totally corrupt. On March 2 with Guterres presumably in New York but not in the mansion at 5 pm - there were no UN security vehicles nearby - he nonetheless left all lights in the second floor blazing. This is pure waste, pure hypocrisy given what Guterres claims about his commitment to sustainability - all the more so because it was broad day light. On matters ranging from censorship and corruption to this, the hypocrisy gets worse and worse. On November 20, the day Guterres accepted the resignation of Erik Solheim -- which Guterres hypocritically demanded on November 19 -- for similar misuse of public funds to travel to Oslo and Paris, Inner City Press asked Guterres who his travel to Lisbon was any different. Guterres refused to answer, got into the back of his publicly funded Mercedes and drove off. Video here. March 25, 2019

As Guterres Kills UN With Corruption and Cameroon Censorship Misuses NYPD on 96 St #DumpGuterres

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 22 – Following this week's terrorist attack on the mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, people all over the world have praised the reaction of the Kiwi prime minister Jacinda Ardern. Meanwhile in New York, the murky faux feminist Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres, after refusing to put a price tag on his travel, to audit the UN activities of briber CEFC China Energy he his linked to or to speak on the killings in Cameroon, is trying to follow suit. Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq - lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric is typically on leave - announced on March 21 that "on Friday, just after noon, he will visit the Islamic Cultural Centre of New York at 96th Street here in Manhattan.  He intends to make some remarks to the press while he is there, and you are all invited to attend." But when Inner City Press went to 96th Street, one of Guterres' guards went to an NYPD squad car and requested that two NYPD officers waste their time and the public's money standing around Inner City Press and not others in the same spot. We have video, here; the event also had the Permanent Representatives of Australia and Turkey and Kuwait, Spain's former former 99Moratinos of the "UN Alliance of Civilizations" with also censors and, from Guterres' staff, Tanguy Stehelin formerly the legal adviser of the French Mission to the UN. This from Guterres who tried to have the Press removed from the Park East Synagogue. It's too little, too late - it's time to #DumpGuterres. At least, #NoSecondTerm. Why not Ardern? #AnyoneButGuterres. At February's Munich Security Conference there has been much praise of Angela Merkel and her speech. And this, from the pool covering U.S. Vice President Mike Pence: "the VP/Merkel Bilat which began at 12:11 pm and ended that same minute.   VP and Merkel shook hands. She smiled. He smiled. They left without making remarks.   Pool is now being escorted to Commerzbank building across the street where we will hold for an undetermined amount of time." Inner City Press has gleaned, and launched online, this: #MerkelForUNSG and #DumpGuterres. Some in response have noted that neither the current US Administration, nor Russia, might favor Merkel. So that is, it seems, the argument for Guterres: that he is so weak, for example skipping altogether the January 26 "urgent' meeting of the UN Security Council on Venezuela in order to not anger either the US, or Russia and China, that he should keep the UNSG position by sheer apathy. And that is a reason that Guterres is killing the UN, including with his failure in Cameroon and elsewhere and his censorship, now at 262 days, of the Press which asks.

March 18, 2019

UN Briber Patrick Ho Says CEFC Gave $2M Per Year To UN Guterres Never Audited Corrupt

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 13 – While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret: his role on the board of Gulbenkian Foundation which was trying to sell its Partex Oil affiliate to CEFC. See Inner City Press' first exclusive report here.

  While Guterres continues to ban from entry the Press which asked him about his CEFC links, now in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York the sentencing of Patrick Ho, long set for March 14, has been pushed back to March 25. For now, Ho has filed a more than one hundred page sentencing submission, the memo accompanying which says "Beginning in 2013, the CEFC Think Tank also held annual symposia at the United Nations (“UN”) devoted to issues raised at the most recent annual political convention in China. In addition, the CEFC Think Tank, in consultation with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (“UN-DESA”), established and funded the “Powering the Future We Want” grant—an annual $1 million award for a promising sustainable energy project (the “Energy Grant”). The CEFC Think Tank donated approximately $2 million to the UN every year to fund the prize and its administration." And yet Guterres has never audited this, choosing instead to rough up and ban the Press which asked him why he wouldn't audit (the answer seems to be Guterres' paid position with the Gulbenkian Foundation which tried to sell its oil company to CEFC). Ho's sentencing submission index  lists Frederick Tschernutter and former Shell Oil CEO John D. Hofmeister. UNSG Antonio Guterres, of course, has refused to audit Ho's CEFC's activities in the amid his conflict of interest and censorship.

March 11, 2019

UN Guterres Spoon Fed Halibut to Correspondents Not On His Schedule While Refusing 7 Press Qs

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 5 –How corrupt has Antonio Guterres made the UN? After roughing up and banning Inner City Press as it asked about his failure to disclose his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy and failure on Cameroon, on March 4 when he refused Press questions on Cameroon, Nigeria, Haiti, Sudan, Qatar, Zambia and his own censorship, Guterres spent public money to spin unnamed correspondents, one of whom later gushed: "I attended a fascinating off-the-record lunch today with UN Sec-Gen Antonio Guterrez, along with a few other journalists." Photo here; Dutch Ambassador Karel von Oosterom, who has withheld every single document about Cameroon from Inner City Press under the WOB, retweeted it. Now the question is, who were these "other journalists" who ate Guterres' halibut apparently without asking about his failure on Cameroon, or UN corruption, or his censorship? Guterres' published schedule for March 4 had only two appoints, neither of which was this publicly funded spoon fed lunch. There was been no answer from the attendee "Stephen Schlesinger @cannon367 Fellow at the Century Foundation @tcfdotorg" - but who were they? Watch this site. We'll have more on this - and on Cameroon: after Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press again asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. This came after Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on 3 July 2018 after it interviewed Biya's Ambassador about the two men's Budget Committee deals and banned from the UN since - Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press banned from the Park East Synagogue, here, which was denied / dodged by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. On March 1 after the Nigerian federal high court sitting in Abuja declared illegal and unconstitutional the deportation of Ayuk Tabe and 46 others from Nigeria to Cameroon in January 2018, Dujarric who refuses questions from Inner City Press he has banned took a fake question from one of his favorites, who said "Anglophones did some shooting" - and said NOTHING about the new ruling. The refoulement took place with Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed there, and joining in censorship since. We'll have more on this, and this:  Azanwuli Chikere, a member of the panel which heard the case, said the Nigeria federal government lacks the power to deport refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria. Ruling on an application filed by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, the court awarded N5 million damages to each of the applicant and also ordered the government to ensure the Cameroonians are brought back to Nigeria.  Among those deported were Julius Tabe, Nfor Nfor, Fidelis Che, Henry Kimeng, Awasum, Cornelius Kwanga, Tassang Wilfred, Eyambe Elias, Ojong Okongho and Nalowa Bih. Amid Guterres' shameful silence, in Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto on February 27 argued he cannot be tried in a military court - the UN seems fine with this - while supporters were held over in Kondengui prison until at least March 19. Meanwhile Guterres' UN system and affiliates, in a system that like a fish rots from the head, lavish praise and money on Paul Biya as he burns villages and takes untold money to his hotel in Geneva. It has gone beyond the money the Secretariat is raising for Biya - now the World Bank is shoveling in money for a dubious dam project: "The Cameroonian President authorized last February 22 the economy minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to sign a loan agreement with World Bank’s subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA), for an amount of €24.5 million, or XAF16.3 billion." How much will go for Biya's hotel bills in Geneva, paid in cash? The UN World Health Program's Matshidiso Moeti praised Biya on, if it can be believed, health while Biya is in fact killing people. Shesaid she "was touched when the Minister of State 'told me that when we train health personnel we need to tell them not only to be efficient and knowledgeable but also to treat members of the public with kindness and compassion.'" Paul Biya and compassion? That's like Antonio Guterres false claim to care about and comply with freedom of the press. Doctor, heal thyself. March 4, 2019

On Cameroon UN Guterres Silent As Refoulement Declared Illegal Dujarric Takes Scam Q

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 1 –After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press again asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. This came after Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on 3 July 2018 after it interviewed Biya's Ambassador about the two men's Budget Committee deals and banned from the UN since - Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press banned from the Park East Synagogue, here, which was denied / dodged by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. On March 1 after the Nigerian federal high court sitting in Abuja declared illegal and unconstitutional the deportation of Ayuk Tabe and 46 others from Nigeria to Cameroon in January 2018, Dujarric who refuses questions from Inner City Press he has banned took a fake question from one of his favorites, who said "Anglophones did some shooting" - and said NOTHING about the new ruling. The refoulement took place with Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed there, and joining in censorship since. We'll have more on this, and this:  Azanwuli Chikere, a member of the panel which heard the case, said the Nigeria federal government lacks the power to deport refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria. Ruling on an application filed by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, the court awarded N5 million damages to each of the applicant and also ordered the government to ensure the Cameroonians are brought back to Nigeria.  Among those deported were Julius Tabe, Nfor Nfor, Fidelis Che, Henry Kimeng, Awasum, Cornelius Kwanga, Tassang Wilfred, Eyambe Elias, Ojong Okongho and Nalowa Bih. Amid Guterres' shameful silence, in Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto on February 27 argued he cannot be tried in a military court - the UN seems fine with this - while supporters were held over in Kondengui prison until at least March 19. Meanwhile Guterres' UN system and affiliates, in a system that like a fish rots from the head, lavish praise and money on Paul Biya as he burns villages and takes untold money to his hotel in Geneva. It has gone beyond the money the Secretariat is raising for Biya - now the World Bank is shoveling in money for a dubious dam project: "The Cameroonian President authorized last February 22 the economy minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to sign a loan agreement with World Bank’s subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA), for an amount of €24.5 million, or XAF16.3 billion." How much will go for Biya's hotel bills in Geneva, paid in cash? The UN World Health Program's Matshidiso Moeti praised Biya on, if it can be believed, health while Biya is in fact killing people. Shesaid she "was touched when the Minister of State 'told me that when we train health personnel we need to tell them not only to be efficient and knowledgeable but also to treat members of the public with kindness and compassion.'" Paul Biya and compassion? That's like Antonio Guterres false claim to care about and comply with freedom of the press. Doctor, heal thyself.

On February 25 in Geneva, amid a Guterres junket full of false claims of his commitment to freedom of the press and to human rights, Biya's Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella in his speech to the UN Human Rights Council bragged of being elected to this Council, amid his government's slaughter in October 2018, and thanks Antonio Guterres. He called the opposition "armed terrorist groups" and did not mention the imprisonment and possible death penalty against for example Maurice Kamto, nor the military trial against Ayuk Tabe and those illegally refouled from Nigeria. Nor does Guterres speak about those abductions, which took place while his deputy Amina J. Mohammed was in Abuja. This is the travesty that Guterres is turning the UN system into.

February 25, 2019

Near UN When Inner City Press Asks Haass About Rubio Critique of Guterres Knicks Is The Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 20 – When Richard Haas took questions near the UN on February 20, Inner City Press asked him about UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' performance on Cameroon and on Venezuela, on which Guterres skipped the January 26 urgent UNSC meeting by staying in the UN's $15 million mansion on Sutton Place, and about US Senator Marco Rubio's critique of Guterres. Video here. Haass turned it into a question about the UN Security Council, saying blaming it is like blaming Madison Square Garden for the Knicks. But the question is about Antonio Guterres, akin to James Dolan. And what of Rubio's critique? Haass was otherwise meaty, from Russian to China to designer multilateralism. But while grateful as always to the hosts, why is it people avoid assessing Guterres, or as soon on February 20, assume it's a ten year term? It's not. #DumpGuterres. When Helen Clark who ran an open campaign for Secretary General won by the significantly less open Antonio Guterres spoke about drugs near the UN on November 19, Inner City Press went to ask and cover it. On the panel also were two UN officials, Craig Mokhiber of the office of Michelle Bachelet and Simone Monasebian, the New York Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Ms Monasebian recounted how some member states were prepared to break consensus on a paragraph on harm reduction in the annual resolution in the UN's Third Committee so that paragraph was removed. Inner City Press when called on asked the panel about the Security Council's heavy handed and military approach to drugs, for example in Afghanistan, and asked for more detail on the Third Committee which it for 138 days has been banned from accessing by UNSG Guterres. Ms. Monasebian noted that beyond Afghanistan the Security Council addressed drugs from 2009 under the Presidency of then Council member Burkina Faso through 2014. Mr. Mokhiber said that military approaches are counter productive. And Helen Clark when she spoke chided the shrinking of civil society space and attacks on journlists including exclusion from the UN across the road. Video here. It was appreciated, as were the event's hosts. February 18, 2019

To Venezuela FM Inner City Press Asks Why Guterres Skipped UNSC Meeting and of Federal Reserve

By Matthew Russell Lee, Video CJR PFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 11 – When the foreign minister of Venezuela, or at least of Nicolas Maduro, Jorge Arreaza emerged from the 3 Sutton Place mansion where UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lives alone and met with him, Inner City Press asked Arreaza two questions. Video here. First, did Guterres explain to him why he skipped the UN Security Council's urgent meeting on Venezuela on January 26? Arreaza said that the Security Council has not even come up his in nearly one hour meet with Guterres, who he called very positive. Inner City Press also asked if Arreaza while in the U.S. would be visiting the Federal Reserve, where Venezuela's accounts have been turned over to Juan Guaido. No, he said, there are other ways of dealing with that than the minster of foreign affairs. When Inner City Press showed up at Guterres or rather the public's $15 million mansion on the corner of 57th Street there was a large black van in front. But later Arreaza came with flashing sirens. The UN Media Acccreditation and Liaison Unit did not even include this meeting in its Media Alert, but allowed in Telesur and a Japanese TV crew which asked Arreaza, Do you have any message for Japan? To this has Guterres sunk. So...


As Guterres Kills UN With Corruption and Cameroon Censorship #MerkelForUNSG Start At Least #DumpGuterres

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 16 – At this weekend's Munich Security Conference there has been much praise of Angela Merkel and her speech. And this, from the pool covering U.S. Vice President Mike Pence: "the VP/Merkel Bilat which began at 12:11 pm and ended that same minute.   VP and Merkel shook hands. She smiled. He smiled. They left without making remarks.   Pool is now being escorted to Commerzbank building across the street where we will hold for an undetermined amount of time." Inner City Press has gleaned, and launched online, this: #MerkelForUNSG and #DumpGuterres. Some in response have noted that neither the current US Administration, nor Russia, might favor Merkel. So that is, it seems, the argument for Guterres: that he is so weak, for example skipping altogether the January 26 "urgent' meeting of the UN Security Council on Venezuela in order to not anger either the US, or Russia and China, that he should keep the UNSG position by sheer apathy. And that is a reason that Guterres is killing the UN, including with his failure in Cameroon and elsewhere and his censorship, now at 227 days, of the Press which asks. In Guterres' UN there has been entirely unaddressed bribery, including offers of weapons for oil by UN non governmental organization China Energy Fund Committee of Ye Jianming which Guterres refuses to even audit - while roughing up and banning the Press which asks him about it.
February 11, 2019

In Corrupt UN of Guterres Hiring Scams in Office of South South Cooperation Travel Waste

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR PFT

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 5 – The extent of corruption in the UN system under Antonio Guterres, who while concealing his links with UN bribery CEFC China Energy has banned the Press which asks, find another example in the Office of South South Cooperation. Today Inner City Press looks with exclusive leaks from within Guterres' declining UN as far south as possible in the Americas, to Argentina. Despite the fact that President Macri campaigned on the promise to achieve “Zero Poverty," soup kitchen lines are getting longer as struggling Argentinians feel the brunt of the harsh austerity measures. But the country’s increased poverty rate is not stopping the Macri government from paying millions to host a conference by Jorge Chediek’s Office of South-South Cooperation. Mr. Chediek and his group continue to use the Office for selfish gain. In addition to his wasteful self-promoting travel, akin to Guterres', Mr. Chediek has engaged in a spree of quid pro quo activities to ingratiate himself with various parties, including questionable hiring. Mr. Chediek engaged the services of fellow Argentine Ms. Cecilia Milesi, to serve as Senior Peacebuilding consultant, despite the fact that she lacks prior substantive experience working in peace and development. And by multiple accounts, this lack of experience reflects in her work. Moreover, Ms. Milesi likely taking cue from her boss,herself engages in conduct violating UNDP policy, including dubious travel on UNDP's dime, making personal stops during official work travel and charged those costs to UNDP resources.    

Ms. Milesi also oversteps her role as a contractor providing service to UNDP, to manage and approve the recruitment of fellow Latin Americans, all of whom were waived from the UNDP competitive process and awarded direct contracts, to join Mr. Chediek’s inner circle. The hiring process was executed in a coordinated family business style, with Ms. Milesi giving pointers to her friends, with whom she had prior association who similarly lack the required experience for the job.

See one of the documents leaked to Inner City Press on Scribd, here

Documents reveal that Ms. Milesi and others interfered in the hiring process by manipulating resumes to match the job description in question in order to bypass any vetting. Moreover, Mr. Chediek blindly signed off on Ms. Milesi’s cronyistic recruitment after she independently completed the hiring process. As a contractor, Ms. Milesi violated UNDP policy prohibiting consultants from overseeing and approving recruitments, without the required oversight or participation of authorized personnel. Moreover, this speaks to the pattern of regional bias at the Office of South South Cooperation, in violation of UNDP’s policy on ensuring diversity in hiring.     

This begs the question: Has Mr. Chediek received a favor from Ms. Milesi’s brother Rodolfo Milesi who is the Executive Director of Branding Latin America, a London based PR firm, in return for hiring this woefully unqualified individual? Mr. Milesi’s company according to the website seeks to “to bridge business and promotional interests between Latin America, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world,” and boasts work with more than 10 presidents, and over 50 corporations among its prolific clientele. This is certainly an attractive partnership, one thatMr. Chediek is likely keen to capitalize on.     

Mr. Milesi has his own connections with the United Nations through his PR firm. Does Antonio Guterreshimself have a quid pro quo with Branding Latin America?According to his social media posts, Mr. Milesi’s Branding Latin America was the official PR firm for the Pacific Alliance during the lastest UN General Assembly week. Ms. Milesi also arranged during this visit of her brother, a friendly meet-and-greet gathering between her brother’s firm’s team and several colleagues from Mr. Chediek’s close circle in the office, which she proudly shared on her Facebook.     With just under two months to BAPA+40, does the Government of Mr. Macri think it prudent to invest millions into the historically corrupt Office of South-South Cooperation while the Argentine populace increasingly relies on charity for sustenance? 

  We'll have more on this.

February 4, 2019

UN Briber China Energy Fund Cttee Remains With ECOSOC Until At Least June As Guterres Covers Up

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 28 – While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret: his role on the board of Gulbenkian Foundation which was trying to sell its Partex Oil affiliate to CEFC. See Inner City Press' first exclusive report here.

  While Guterres continues to ban from entry the Press which asked him about his CEFC links, in the UN Committee on Non Governmental Organizations on January 21 the US belatedly requested the suspension or dis-accreditation of CEFC from the UN. This is what Guterres has refused to act on for more than a year, while concealing his links to the group. CEFC was given until Friday, January 25 to answer on the issues. The acting chief of the UN NGO branch on Friday afternoon said it had not responded. Pakistan and Russia raised questions if this meant that as a matter of precedent it should have its status withdrawn. On January 28 following a written inquiry by Inner City Press a self-described diplomat on the NGO committee confirmed that "the NGO Committee recommended that ECOSOC consultative status be withdrawn for CEFC.  ECOSOC will decide whether to approve the NGO Committee’s recommendation at its June 2019 ECOSOC management meeting." So they're still in. Guterres' cover up of his link to the group remains unaddressed - with no answers from his spokesmen Stephane Dujarric and for this entire week, Farhan Haq. We'll have more on this.

January 28, 2019

On South Sudan Guterres and Farhan Haq Cover Up UN Murder Sex Abuse Customs Fraud Gender Studies Link

By Matthew Russell Lee, EXCLUSIVE, video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 25 -- The UN of Secretary General Antonio Guterres has refused to answer Press questions about a new case of UN sexual exploitation by an international staff members -- nationality undisclosed - in South Sudan and now Inner City Press which asked knows why. The accused staff member is from Nigeria, the country of Guterres' Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed, where in another undisclosed trip she is doing political work for President Buhari right now. Their deputy spokesman Farhan Haq has refused to even acknowledge the written questions of Inner City Press, banned by Guterres and Mohammed for 205 days and counting, see below. On January 25 Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq questions including: "January 25-2: On South Sudan and the questions you have refused to answer, immediately confirm or deny that (1) the nationality of the "international" charged with sexual exploitation is Nigerian; separately (2) that the individual's name is Mr. Olayinka Adeyemi, (3) that he work(ed) for the  "Code of Conduct" Unit. Please respond to UNMISS sources saying the nationality was withheld, unlike in other cases, because he and the DSG are from Nigeria.  January 25-3: On the killing of two civilians by the UN in South Sudan, on which you have refused to answer Inner City Press' question despite Spox Dujarric on camera statement that questions would be answered, please immediately confirm that it took place at Durupi camp as they were doing UN contracted work on the fence, and state what accountability there has been, and the nationality - and separately name(s) - of the shooter(s).  January 25-4: On UN corruption and South Sudan, please immediate respond to what whistleblowers have told Inner City Press, that bringing everything in this country. Whiskey and Cigarette under SOFA agreement,” the Customs Service revealed. UNMISS General Ayii said has a sub-contractor called "Tri-Star" Company, an Indian company which has been dealing in these goods. However, he said the government would soon review the tax exemption policy regarding UN agencies in South Sudan. This comes after the institution found out that it has been losing billions of pounds to some goods imported by the UN agencies and humanitarian groups.  “I have been in Nimule as chief customs officer for 8 years, so I know any secret of any NGO in this country,” he said. He questioned the purpose for which these items are brought given the frequency of their importation into the country “How come the UNMISS brings 200 JET A1 in every month, or even Solar panels and fuel, 200 and 300 every month.”   UNMISS gave for some companies to bring items in the name of UN and nobody knows the whereabout of the items. There are stores giving the service in the UNMISS but did not go proper bidding . They are importing tax free items for the stuff but they are selling expensive more than the outside stores." No answers - Guterres and now Haq are covering up sexual exploitation, and the killing of civilians. Inner City Press has this, exclusively, from its sources in South Sudan: Mr. Olayinka Adeyemi, an international UN staff member working ironically for the "Code of Conduct" Unit has been accused of  Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and sent home to Nigeria, where DSG Amina Mohammed is righ now, until the investigation or cover up is completed. The case was being tried to be covered up since the chief of staff is from Nigeria, UNMISS staff tell Inner City Press. This unit was  established to follow up all conduct issues but surprisely, or not under thehypocritical administration of Guterres, its own staff stands accused. The Unit was working to terrorize and intimidate genuine staff member and strongly protecting managers who were found guilty. Also, the top official at the Customs Service has accused the UN mission in South Sudan  of abusing the status of forces agreement or SOFA. The SOFA was signed a month later after the independence in 2011, between the government and the UNMISS. “Since 2007, these guys are bringing everything in this country. Whiskey and Cigarette under SOFA agreement,” the Customs Service revealed. UNMISS General Ayii said has a sub-contractor called "Tri-Star" Company, an Indian company which has been dealing in these goods. However, he said the government would soon review the tax exemption policy regarding UN agencies in South Sudan. This comes after the institution found out that it has been losing billions of pounds to some goods imported by the UN agencies and humanitarian groups.  “I have been in Nimule as chief customs officer for 8 years, so I know any secret of any NGO in this country,” he said. He questioned the purpose for which these items are brought given the frequency of their importation into the country “How come the UNMISS brings 200 JET A1 in every month, or even Solar panels and fuel, 200 and 300 every month.”   UNMISS gave for some companies to bring items in the name of UN and nobody knows the whereabout of the items. There are stores giving the service in the UNMISS but did not go proper bidding . They are importing tax free items for the stuff but they are selling expensive more than the outside stores.    In another case Guterres, Mohammed, Haq and lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric have refused to answer on, sources tell Inner City PRess that the two South Sudanese nationals   were killed wrongly  while performing their duties in Durupi camp as contractors. The two gentlemen were contracted to maintain the fences and were shot and killed by UN peacekeeping - with no accountability, or even answer from Guterres and his spokesmen, who together have had Inner City Press banned from the noon briefing for 204 days while they get no questions about anything in Africa, totally corrupt. They have refused to confirm or comment on this email to DSS Peter Drennan, who Alison Smale says is responsible for Inner City Press' no due process ban for having been roughed up by Drennan's Lt Ronald E. Dobbins: "Yesterday, a circular was sent to all UNMISS security officers in South Sudan  not to communicate to UNDSS in New York. During the open meeting called by UNDSS Officials from New York   or Secretary General  on VTC, Security staff members are discouraged and blacklisted for airing their views. Is this organization  exemplary for   democracy or transparency? Security officers are not copying their messages to  their managers or supervisors   because they are dictators and abusers and incompetent to answer the questions properly.  'Dear Colleagues, It has been noted that security officers continue to  communicate directly with DSS HQ on policies and other official issues in spite of the fact that you have been advised not to do so. Worst  of all, these correspondences are done without  copying the PSA  or security management in Juba.  This is against best practices and should  be stopped.  Once again please be reminded to direct all your concerns regarding security policies and other official issues to  security management in Juba. Where it is deemed that UNDSS HQ’s input is required,  management in Juba will do so.  Kind regards     Thomas Acheampong.'" We've asked: On South Sudan and DSS, immediately confirm USG Drennan's receipt of, and response to, the complain from UNMISS staff they have been silenced and told to not speak up about their complaints, sent to Inner City Press, Drennan and Bill Miller and Wind-Andersen, Andriamampianina, Mitrokhin and Payumo at UN in the past 24 hours." Nothing at all - except another ban and camera grab by UN security on January 23. No answers at all from Drennan. We'll have more on this.  Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual abuse, exploitation and harassment, and for retaliation. But when Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman and now cover-up man Farhan Haq on 15 March 2018 about Michel Sidibé's reported threats of retaliatory investigations against those making and offering support to sexual harassment complaints at UNAIDS, Haq said this is entire a matter for UNAIDS. Earlier Inner City Press story here; exclusive publication of whistleblowers' international condemnation of retaliation and favoritism in Sidibe's UNAIDS, below. Now Haq, left in charge while Guterres and his lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric are pontificating in Davos, is refusing to provide basic, historically disclosed information about UN sexual exploitation and abuse cases - this despite Haq's road to his gatekeeper position running either through the defunct newspaper the City Sun, or being the son of UNDP economist Mahbub ul Haq. In either case, this is a new low, withholding information about a UN "international" engaging in sexual exploitation in so often mistreated South Sudan - all the more so give Haq's online connections to women's studies in the Garden State: Ethel Brooks is a professor in Rutger's Department of Women's and Gender Studies - what about covering up rapes in South Sudan? - with an interest in "Visual cultures, Artistic practice, Representation, Productivity, Camps and Encampment, Digital media and Belonging; Critical Political Economy, Transnational Networks, Social Movements, Feminist Theory, Comparative and Historical Methods, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology; Romani Studies, Central American Studies, South Asian studies, Nationalism, Post-colonialism and Critical race theory." And yet covering up rapes in South Sudan? Here's how low: on January 22, Haq promoted for-profit Amazon Prime, video here: "just to flag that tonight the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Amazon Studios will be hosting a film screening of Beautiful Boy.  That will take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 23 January, in other words, tomorrow night, in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.  Actor Timothée Chalamet, author David Sheff, and producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner will take part in a Q&A following the screening of the film.  Beautiful Boy is based on the best‑selling memoirs from David and Nic Sheff and chronicles the experience of survival, relapse and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years.  The film is available on Amazon Prime Video." That was inappropriate promotion of a for profit service. But it's worse: when Inner City Press which was invited by Amazon went, it was barred and its camera grabbed, hereJanuary 21, 2019

UN Guterres Mistakes Sudan For DRC Says No Probe of Khashoggi But Advising Cameroon Biya

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 18 – When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres held a rare press conference in UN Headquarters on January 18, he mistook Sudan where the genocide indictee he has twice met with is using live fire on protesters for DR Congo, where after the UN spent $20 billion Guterres won't even follow the African Union in saying Kabila's results are dubious. Guterres who had refused to answer why he omitted his paid board position with Gulbenkian Foundation from his financial disclosure covering 2016, and why he has refused to audit the continued UN presence of UN briber CEFC China Energy which tried to buy Partex Oil from Guterres' Gulbenkian, did not face a single question about corruption, nor sexual harassment, nor his anti human rights comments on Somalia the day before. Why not? Because Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, and Global Communicator Alison Smale, had critical Inner City Press which asks about these things roughed up on 3 July 2018 and banned from even entering the UN since, 197 days and counting. Call it censorship for corruption.   

  Inner City Press live tweeted the dismal press conference, in which a former UN official got Guterres to praise China's Belt and Road, here. Guterres insisted he cannot call for an investigation of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi; he praised Bangladesh's Sheikh Hasina who had her opponents beaten and turned off the Internet. In a surprising aside, Guterres said he has spoken six times with Cameroon's 36 year ruler Paul Biya, as the latter has ramped up his killing of Anglophones. Was Guterres advising him, on how to get better press as the government's memo of meeting with Guterres says? We'll have more on this. How lawless is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? In the midst of Inner City Press' questioning in 2018 about Guterres' links to now convicted UN bribery Patrick Ho's China Energy Fund Committee and Guterres' failures on Cameroon and elsewhere, his UN Security twice roughed up Inner City Press on June 22 and July 3, 2018.

Then after Inner City Press filed a New York Police Department complaint against the UN and its Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, Inner City Press as banned from entering the UN in retaliation.

After a UN "review" that did not include any opportunity to be heard for Inner City Press, Guterres' Under Secretary General Alison Smale on 17 August 2018 issued a letter "withdrawing" Inner City Press' UN media accreditation. Smale was asked how Inner City Press could appeal, including by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye, but did not answer that.

January 14, 2019

As UN Guterres Fails With Somalia and Guatemala Like Cameroon His Supporters Blame P3

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A, NY Post

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 9 – With UN Secretary General obviously failing, from Somalia to Guatemala to Cameroon which he covered up by censorship, the pro-UN industial complex is casting around for someone, anyone to blame but Guterres and themselves. A current argument, propped up by former Guterres official Jeffrey Feltman who signed off on Bernardino Leon's sell out of the UN to the UAE, is that Guterres is forced to be weak because the P3 (France, UK and US) won't back him up. But could it be Guterres' fault? These analysts, including Human Rights Watch, have said nothing about Guterres' links to briber China Energy Fund Committee, much less his roughing up and banning of the Press which asked. They didn't cover Guterres' ghoulish order to staff not to ask him any questions or even take selfies when he used their work space for his photo op. Is it any wonder Jimmy Morales and many in Somalia laugh at Guterres? Are those close to Guterres, profiting from insider status, not part of the problem that is killing the UN? Who is killing the UN? His name is Guterres. And he has many accomplices, including those producing what are, in essence, defenses of Guterres but which his spokesman are the type of hard hitting coverage that proves he is not a censor for twice banning the critical Press. For weeks the UN of Guterres had refused to answer Press questions about Somalia. Now after Guterres' SRSG representative Nicholas Haysom was ordered to cease operations in, and presumably leave, Somalia, Guterres on January 4 has said the country CANNOT declare Haysom Persona Non Grata, since the UN "is not a state." Why then can Guterres rough up and ban a journalist and claim immunity? And Inner City Press, which Guterres had roughed up on 3 July 2018 and banned since, had before that asked Guterres' Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about a PNG-ing of UN staff by Burundi and Dujarric said, "I don’t know what the status of the staff member who was 'PNG-ed.' We can check." Video here. But it's worse. When the UN tried to send an SRSG to Iraq and the government objected, the decision was reversed. But never, UN staff tell Inner City Press, has a UN Secretary General given in as quickly as Guterres has to Somalia. They tell Inner City Press exclusively that Guterres was hung up on on the phone. And that the UN Political Affairs operation under Rosemary DiCarlo was not even in the loop on the absurd statement read out by Farhan Haq at at noon. "She's nothing," a long time DPA official told Inner City Press. "If Washington every looks closely she'll be fired." If it happens, it should be for the scandal of the handover of the Department's website to the photographer husband of her chief of staff, unacted on by the titular head of the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services who has disappeared and is said by her own staff to be... well, that will have to wait. Watch this site. Sierra Leone PNG-ed Michael von der Schulenburg, of whom Inner City Press also asked before being roughed up and banned under Guterres - who claims immunity for all of this. We'll have more on this. Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Guterres will nevertheless replace Haysom "in due course."

January 7, 2019

UN Guterres Had Press Roughed Up and Accreditation Withdrawn Now Basis For New Denial

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 2 – How lawless is the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres? In the midst of Inner City Press' questioning in 2018 about Guterres' links to now convicted UN bribery Patrick Ho's China Energy Fund Committee and Guterres' failures on Cameroon and elsewhere, his UN Security twice roughed up Inner City Press on June 22 and July 3, 2018.

Then after Inner City Press filed a New York Police Department complaint against the UN and its Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins, Inner City Press as banned from entering the UN in retaliation.

After a UN "review" that did not include any opportunity to be heard for Inner City Press, Guterres' Under Secretary General Alison Smale on 17 August 2018 issued a letter "withdrawing" Inner City Press' UN media accreditation. Smale was asked how Inner City Press could appeal, including by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye, but did not answer that.

On 3 September 2018, facing the prospect of being unable to enter the UN to cover the General Assembly "high level" week for the first time in a decade, Inner City Press submitted an application for accreditation. But there was no action on it - in fact, during high level week, it emerged that Inner City Press had been put on a non-public "barred" list such that even if invited by a member state or UN agency, it could not enter the building.

Patrick Ho of CEFC was convicted on 5 December 2018. Inner City Press again exclusively reported that Guterres had failed to include his paid position on the board of the Gulbenkian Foundation in his Public Financial Disclosure covering 2016 - and that Gulbenkian in 2018 was trying to sell its Partex Oil and Gas affiliate to CEFC as Guterres refused to audit CEFC and had Inner City Press which asked roughed up and banned.

And now on 2 January 2019 Smale's Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit has issued a denial of Inner City Press' September application for accreditation, stating only that

"Greetings Matthew LEE from ICP     INNER CITY PRESS, 

Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M72295425, has been declined for the following reason: Accreditation was withdrawn on 17 August 2018."

  This is Kafka-esque. Accreditation was withdrawn without any hearing or chance to appeal, but that decision is used to deny future accreditation. While preaching about due process and freedom of the press, Guterres' UN has a "one strike and your out" policy - even if there is no strike. The alleged violations were filming in place Smale's own MALU staff told Inner City Press it could film with out an escort, and recording her deputy in a known media stakeout position.

   Guterres is a censor, to conceal his own conflict of interest. He has failed many people, including the Anglophones being killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, from whom Guterres accepted a golden statue and Budget Committee favors. This is corruption and the reporting on and exposing of it will not cease. No due process censorship by the UN is UNacceptable.

While Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret: his role on the board of Gulbenkian Foundation which was trying to sell its Partex Oil affiliate to CEFC. See Inner City Press' first exclusive report here.

  Today Inner City Press continues its exclusive series on some of the CEFC connections in and through the UN that should have been identified in the audit that Guterres corruptly refused to begin, with his conflict of interest. (Even his predecessor Ban Ki-moon ordered an audit after Ng Lap Seng was indicted - Guterres still hasn't after Patrick Ho was convicted.)

   It's time to consider the Guterres-like hypocrisy of Gulbenkian, publicly tying itself to the "blue ocean economy" while taking money from the oil company Partex they tried to sell to CEFC which Guterres has covered up for. Antonio Guterres was a paid board member of Gulbenkian; his wife Catarina Vaz Pinto was paid by them as well. Antonio Guterres' daughter Mariana Guterres actively promotes Gulbenkian (as well as, troublingly, dead children in Kenya); his daughter in law Vanda Onnesjo Lobo gushes about its causes.

  In fact, Gulbenkian which tried to sell its Partex Oil to CEFC in 2018 partners with "Oceano Azul Foundation" - which just happens to have in 2018 hired Antonio Guterres' daughter in law Vanda Lobo, see here. Given Gunbenkian's business dealings with UN briber CEFC, shouldn't this all have been disclosed? Isn't it an abuse that Antonio Guterres would have the only media asking about it roughed up and banned? This is UN corruption.

(His son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres, after being a part of the defrauding of PT Portugal as it was passed from Brazil's Oi to France's Altice, seems to have gone to ground, with not a single legitimate question about his business links answered).  But now in 2018 - and according to Guterres' publicly funded propaganda, 2019 - it is all a front. Guterres has shown himself willing to rough up a journalist who asked about this and more, banning the Press for 182 days with no end in sight.

  Consider Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric has family links to Gulbenkian. Inner City Press asked Dujarric in writing to disclose these (no answer, and Stephane Dujarric blocks @InnerCityPress on Twitter), just as it asked him in person why CEFC wasn't being audited in March 2018, before Dujarric and Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up and banned, 180 days now. In March 2018 Gulbenkian Foundation was actively trying to sell its Partex Oil and Gas affiliate to CEFC China Energy. And here's Stephane Dujarric's Tokyo- and Temple-based brother Robert Dujarric praising and appearing at Gulbenkian - audio here, program here. We'll have more on this.

December 31, 2018

UN Guterres Stonewalls on His Links to China Energy Fund Committee UN Staffers Met Ye Jianming

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS, December 28 – While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret: his role on the board of Gulbenkian Foundation which was trying to sell its Partex Oil affiliate to CEFC. See Inner City Press' first exclusive report here.

  Today Inner City Press continues its exclusive series on some of the CEFC connections in and through the UN that should have been identified in the audit that Guterres corruptly refused to begin, with his conflict of interest. (Even his predecessor Ban Ki-moon ordered an audit after Ng Lap Seng was indicted - Guterres still hasn't after Patrick Ho was convicted.)

  One of the people identified in the Ban Ki-moon audit of Ng Lap Seng and South South News was Ion Botnaru. He was allowed to retire, after changing a UN General Assembly document along with then President of the General Assembly John Ashe, who died under indictment ostensibly crushed by his own barbell, to benefit Ng's Sun Kian Ip group. Botnaru reappears again with CEFC, here. And, crying out for audit, the President of the General Assembly who swore in Guterres, Peter Thomson of Fiji, traveled like Ashe and Vuk Jeremic and Sam Kutesa to meet CEFC's Ye Jianming in Hong Kong.

  Inner City Press has asked Guterres and his spokespeople, among many other questions, "Beyond the 37 questions from Inner City Press you refused to answer last week, still set forth below for promised answer, this is a request, given that Peter Thomson is the SG's rep on Oceans that you describe in detail Thomson's 2017 meeting with now disappeared Ye Jianming of CEFC, name which UN DSS officials were with him and what reports they filed, what their duties were; what was seen by those accompanying Thomson, at least two of whom are still in the UN (one is with China)."

  Typically, Guterres and his spokespeople did not answer. So here, pending listing those from UN Department of Safety and Security the group which roughs up the Press without accountability and maintains a retaliatory "lifetime" banned from the UN list, are the names: "During his two-day visit, the President of the UN General Assembly was accompanied by his senior advisors Abdelghani Merabet, and Zhang Yi, as well as by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs’s Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, Zhu Juwang." Now, Thomson staffer or embed Zhang Yi has gone (back, or more openly) to working for the Chinese government: "On August 14 [2018], Deputy Director-General of China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges Zhang Yi was invited to attend the FOCAC - Africa-China Poverty Reduction and Development Conference, an important sub-forum under the FOCAC hosted by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development and co-organized by the International Poverty Reduction Center in China and the China Belt and Road Institute for Agricultural Cooperation of China Agriculture University. Attending were more than 300 participants including government officials, international organizations’ representatives, non-governmental organizations’ officials, business leaders, experts and scholars from China, United States, Japan, Denmark and 40 African countries like Angola, Botswana and Mauritius."

  What did they see during Thomson's meeting with now-known briber Ye Jianming? Zhu Juwang  is still with UN DESA; Abdelghani Merabet  is with the current PGA. We'll have more on this: the UN should be answering these questions, now.

  In 2017, the year in which CEFC's Patrick Ho was indicted and arrested for UN bribery, CEFC in the UN engaged at least twice with Lenni Montiel, including for example on 6 July 2017, and also with DESA official Pingfan Hong. Some photos here. Inner City Press before Guterres had it roughed up and banned now 176 days for its inquiries into Guterres' corruption has politely questioned both Montiel and Hong - but Guterres has made that impossible and his Spokesmen refused to answer any written questions, for more than a week now. There are more connections.

  Guterres got favors from Peter Thomson when Thomson was President of the General Assembly. Rudimentary open source research - including on the UN's own website here - finds that Thomson, like implicated Sam Kutesa and John Ashe and Vuk Jeremic, visited CEFC's Ye Jianming in Hong Kong. What was discussed? Inner City Press previously covered, critically but civilly, Thomson. Now corrupt Guterres has had Inner City Press roughed up and banned 175 days, with his Spokesman Stephane Dujarric refusing to answer any questions despite the promise of Guterres' USG Alison Smale.

   After receiving favors from Thomson as PGA, Guterres gave him a job in his Secretariat, Representative on Oceans. Here is Patrick Ho, interviewed by Guterres' DESA, on Oceans. There should have been an audit. There still should be. Another of Guterres' special advisers, Jeffrey Sachs, after denying Inner City Press' documented report Sachs was on a UN - CEFC board, abruptly closed his Twitter account, story here. Guterres goes on robo-tweeting from parts unknown, spending public money undisclosed. Guterres should explain and / or resign.  We will have more in this series.

December 24, 2018

UN Guterres Refused to Audit China Energy Fund Committee While Covering Up His Links to Partex Oil For Sale to CEFC

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS, December 22 – While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to begin any UN audit into China Energy Fund Committee, implicated in the UN bribery prosecution US v Patrick Ho, Guterres had a secret.

   Guterres was and it seems still is connected with and compensated by a company which was trying to sell its oil and gas business to China Energy Fund Committee in 2018. Guterres' failure to disclose and refusal to audit was a direct conflict of interest, which he has tried to cover up by roughing up and banning Inner City Press which asked him about it. (See January 2018 press conference here, July 2018 roughing up by Guterres' UN Security here, banning letter via Press Freedom Tracker here.)

   For years Guterres received money as a board member of the Calouste Galbenkian Foundation, which despite its name is the 100% owner of Partex Oil and Gas. Partex has operations in Angola, Abu Dhabi, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Oman and Portugal. It was to a Portuguese court that Guterres, while justifying no listing some of his income, disclosed in 2016 that he was paid at least € 2735 per month for his position with the Gulbenkian Foundation.

   But while a now deleted Foundation web page (archived here) stated that Guterres continued with Gulbenkian into 2018, Guterres did not list it on his most recent, and so far lone, UN Public Financial Disclosure, which covered 2016 ("Disclosing financial and other interests for the 2016 reporting year").

  So why did Guterres disclose his position with the Club of Madrid, but not with the Gulbenkian Foundation / Partex Oil and Gas? It is worth noting that Guterres' wife Catarina Vaz Pinto has also been connected to Gulbenkian.

   Following the roughing up and banning from the UN of Inner City Press which has covered the CEFC scandal throughout, Guterres' head of Global Communications Alison Smale promised UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression David Kaye, who asked, that the UN would still answer Inner City Press' written questions.

   But as 2018 came to a close Guterres' spokesmen Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq left unanswered 36 questions in a row from Inner City Press, including this: “Beyond the 35 questions from Inner City Press you refused to answer this week, this is a request on deadline that you (1) state when SG Guterres left his position on the Gulbenkian Foundation,

(2) state why Gulbenkian was not listed on SG Guterres' public financial disclosure which covered 2016;

(3) explain how it is not a conflict of interest for SG Guterres to have refused to start an audit of CEFC in the UN, as requested by Inner City Press in January 2018, given CEFC's bid for the oil business of Gulbenkian.

Also, again, state why under SG Guterres there have been no updates to the UN public financial disclosures since those filed for 2016. Also, again, explain your refusal to answer any of Inner City Press' questions this week despite USG Smale's statements to GAP, me and UNSR David Kaye. On deadline.”

   The question was also sent to the e-mail addresses of Guterres, his chief of staff Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed, and Smale, who earlier in the week told Inner City Press she would take “under advisement” her 17 August 2018 pretextual withdrawal of Inner City Press decade long UN media accreditation.
  It seems clear that Guterres and his team have engaged in censorship for corruption, to conceal a blatant conflict of interest by Guterres. It has been raised by Inner City Press to the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, and others.  Watch this site.December 17, 2018


On Cameroon UN Guterres Envoy Fall Claimed Biya Gender Desks But After Fact Check No Answer

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Goot PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, December 14 -- After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years lied that Transparency International was observing his re-coronation, and burned village after village in the Anglophone regions while hiring lobbyists to seek and get support from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on October 22 he claimed to win over 71% of the vote and even that 16% of those eligible voted in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions. None of this is credible. Nor is the new report by Guterres' failed envoy Francois Lounceny Fall, nor Fall's presentation to the Council, entry to cover which Guterres is corruptly barring Inner City Press on December 13, for the 162nd day. After Fall's pitch, and dubious claims of concern from countries which are withholding all documents about Cameroon which Inner City Press has requested from them under Freedom of Information laws like the Dutch WOB, on December 13 and 14 Inner City Press asked the UN: "December 14-6: On Cameroon, on which you have been refusing Inner City Press' questions, now that Francois Fall has said he visited in November and met Government officials, state with whom else he met. He describes “Gender Desks” in police stations but an Inner City Press reader today called the Kumba police station and they'd never heard of it. What is the basis of Mr. Fall's statement?" Hours after the December 14 UN noon briefing at which those allowed in asked not a single question about anything in Africa, much less Cameroon, Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq sent this: "Regarding question December 14-6, we have provided Mr. Fall’s briefing to the Security Council, in which he details his concerns about Cameroon and his work there." And the Gender Desks? Here is a paragraph of Fall's and Guterres' report: "5. The security situation in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon
continued to deteriorate. Sporadic fighting between security forces and armed groups
was reported throughout the reporting period. On 12 July, the convoy of the Minister
for Defence was attacked on two separate occasions near Kumba in the South-West
region. On the night of 28 to 29 July, an armed group attacked a prison in Ndop in the
North-West region, resulting in the escape of 163 inmates. On 26 September, armed
individuals also attacked a prison in Wum in the North-West region, leading to the
escape of 80 inmates. On 5 November, nearly 80 students and staff from a secondary
school in Bamenda, in the North-West region, were kidnapped. All of the students
were released the following day. During the reporting period, there were reports of
sexual violence perpetrated by both security forces and armed groups. In response,
“gender desks” were established at police stations in the South-West region in an
effort to establish a safe and confidential reporting process on sexual and genderbased
violence and related crimes. On 11 October, religious leaders of the Catholic,
Protestant and Muslim communities in the English-speaking regions held a meeting
in preparation for an “Anglophone General Conference” scheduled to be held in Buea,
in the South-West region, on 21 and 22 November, but which was later postponed. At
the same meeting, they reiterated their appeal for the cessation of military and
insurgent operations in the English-speaking regions." And Antonio Guterres... took Biya's golden statue, made a Budget Committee deal to stay quiet on the slaughter, and had roughed up and banned for 161 days and counting the Press which asked him about it. December 10, 2018

UN Bribery Guilty Verdict Against Ho of China Energy Fund Committee Shows Need For Reform and Oversight of SG

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS, December 8 – What will any new Ambassador to the UN, whether Heather Nauert or anyone else, find  that needs to be addressed? Most recently, in two words, rampant and unrelenting bribery, including offers of weapons for oil by UN non governmental organizations which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres refuses to even audit - while roughing up and banning the Press which asks him about it.

Three years ago Macau based businessman Ng Lap Seng was arrested and charged with bribing UN General Assembly President Josh Ashe and others, though Sun Kian Ip Foundation and other groups still in the UN. Ng was convicted of multiple violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering. But the issue of faux NGO purchase of the UN hasn't gone away. In fact, a second UN bribery case ended this week in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with seven guilty verdicts.

In this second case, Patrick Ho was found guilty of seven of eight counts of FCPA and month laundering. (He was only not guilty on money laundering in Chad - where the bribe was not through any US bank but in cash, $2 million in a gift box). The evidence showed that the NGO he ran, China Energy Fund Committee, used its ongoing UN consultative status to pay bribes to Ugandan foreign minister - and Ashe's successor as President of the UN General Assembly -- Sam Kutesa. He was working with precedessor Vuk Jeremic while Jeremic was UN PGA. CEFC even offered weapons, tanks and drones, to Chad's long time president Idriss Deby for oil blocks or a stake in the Chad Cameroon pipeline. (Inner City Press published documents here.)

The night of the verdict I asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres what he will do to clean up the UN, where he has left CEFC without any audit, still in consultative status with the UN. On his way from his Mercedes to a glitzy fundraiser including George and Amal Clooney, Guterres refused to answer. The next day when asked by another journalist why Guterres had refused to answer banned Inner City Press' question, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric claimed that the UN has “cooperated” with the prosecution. But the bribery group remains in the UN, unaudited.

Why has the case of US versus Ho, and now the guilty verdicts, garnered relatively so little interest, with the corruption of the UN exposed by it scarcely mentioned all? SG Guterres is hoping it goes away. In terms of corruption, he did not disclose and refuses to answer on the African business links of his son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres. He refuses to answer how much he spends in public funds flying to his home in Lisbon at least sixteen times sofar as SG.

   So CEFC remains an accredited non governmental organization with the UN's Economic and Social Council, while investigative Inner City Press for which I have been covering the case has been dis-accredited by and ousted from the UN, put on a list of those permanently banned without notice, due process or appeal. On December 7 I was informed I am banned from a “UN Human Rights” event on December 10 to be addressed by Guterres and his human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet. But this reporting will not stop - Guterres' corruption of the UN must be addressed, through oversight or as is discussed elsewhere, impeachment. From the lofty goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Guterres' censorship for corruption is UNacceptable.

  With UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour set to speak in the UN on human rights day on December 10, Inner City Press responded to an invitation and was told, "Thank you for registering to attend the Human Rights Day event at the United Nations on Monday 10 December. On Monday, please come to the UN Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue opposite 45th street starting at 2pm, at which time entry passes will be distributed."

Then, past six p.m. on Friday, December 7 this from Bachelet's and Gilmour's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: "Dear Matthew, We have received notification from UN Security that your name was flagged as "BARRED" on the list we submitted for passes for Monday's event (3pm, ECOSOC Chamber). We will therefore not have a pass for you and are unable to facilitate entry.
Thank you for your interest and best regards,
OHCHR New York Office." Photo of email here.

   Inner City Press immediately wrote back, to the sender and Bachelet and her assistant, to Andrew Gilmour and to the moderator of the event, "Particularly since you are the UN Office of the High Commissioner for *Human Rights,* did you not ask why a journalist who asks the Secretary General and his spokesmen about the killings in Cameroon, Burundi, UN corruption, UN peacekeepers' sexual abuse of civilians, and Sri Lanka, is “BARRED” from attending your human rights event - without any hearing or appeal? I will appreciate your Office's answer to this."  We'll have more on this.

 Bachelet gave a speech on October 15 in the UN's Third Committee, she emphasized a prioritization of social and economic rights and said one of the officials of her office is "on mission in Silicon Valley" in the US. There are questions about this - but Inner City Press which has covered human rights and the UN for more than a decade was for the first time banned from access a High Commissioner's speech. This has been raised repeated to Bachelet since she took office but she has so far done nothing, not even responded. Meanwhile on October 12 Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya Secretary General Antonio Guterres took a golden statue and favors in the Fifth (Budget) Committee and remains silent on the slaughter of Anglophones, was elected to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. This system is failing - but if Bachelet cannot even answer on Guterres maintaining a secret banned list including not only Inner City Press but also "political activists" - and anti-corruption campaigners - then the UN of Guterres has hit its newest low. December 3, 2018