By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 -- What has Ban Ki-moon's UN learned since the flurry of indictments in October 2015 for bribery at the UN of former President of the General Assembly John Ashe, former Dominican Republic Deputy Permanent Representative and South South News President Francis Lorenzo and Macau-based real estate developer Ng Lap Seng?
Two days after this UN Press Briefing Room featured an UNCTAD press conference by a real estate company - sans UNCTAD, and sans answers from Spokesman and Keeper of the Room Stephane Dujarric - on May 20 Inner City Press went to a press conference advertised by DPI's Media Alert:
"Press briefing by the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOPS) on ID 2020: Harnessing the Power of Digital Legal Identities for Global Good
Speakers:
Niall McCann, Policy Advisor, UN Development Programme
John Edge, Founder ID2020
Ruchira Gupta, Founder Apne Aap Women Worldwide
Rowena Mearley, PwC, Director, Global Communications & Public Relations
Marley Gray, Director Business Development, Cloud & Enterprise - Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Ecosystem at Microsoft."
Speakers:
Niall McCann, Policy Advisor, UN Development Programme
John Edge, Founder ID2020
Ruchira Gupta, Founder Apne Aap Women Worldwide
Rowena Mearley, PwC, Director, Global Communications & Public Relations
Marley Gray, Director Business Development, Cloud & Enterprise - Blockchain/Distributed Ledger Ecosystem at Microsoft."
As the companies were pitching their wares, leavened with a wee bit of anti child sex trafficking to make it palatable, Inner City Press went in and asked not only about the World Bank's similar project, but about the sponsor of the press conference, UNOP, being named in OIOS' John Ashe audit as having done no due diligence.
The speakers indicated they had never heard of John Ashe - convenient, when pitching for business in Ban's UN - and a woman in the back said it was, in fact, a UNDP press conference. But that's not what DPI's Media Alert says. And what about the promised UNDP press conference on their own Ng Lap Seng audit, which Dujarric said weeks about would happen within days? This is a cover up. And things are getting worse, not better, in Ban's UN.
On May 18, Inner City Press went to cover a UN press conference described this way:
“Press briefing by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (18-19 May) Speakers:
Mr. Frank Drohan, Chairman, Omagine, Inc
Mr. Sam Hamdan, Chairman, The World Summit.”
Ban Ki-moon's spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced and promoted the press conference during the day's noon briefing. From the UN transcript: "At 2 p.m. here today in this room, a press briefing here by UNCTAD [UN Conference on Trade and Development] on the World Summit on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (18-19 May), which starts today."
The press conference began 30 minutes late; there were only three correspondents present, including Inner City Press. After the others finished questions, Inner City Press asked a simple question:
Is Omagine a real estate company? Frank Drohan said, it is a tourism company. Video here.
Inner City Press asked, is it the Omagine described this year on the SeekingAlpha financial site as
“Investors have good justification for being pessimistic toward Omagine’s future profitability. The question is not whether investor sentiment should be low, but whether it is too low. Omagine, Inc. (OTCQB:OMAG), a Delaware-based holding company, is a stock the market has apparently left for dead. In fact, investors are currently declaring that the company is worth more dead than alive. At $1.34/share the stock is trading for just less than 12% of the company's net current assets. This means that not only does the market value the firm's Property, Plant & Equipment at zero, but it is also discounting the net liquid assets by nearly 90%.”
Frank Drohan said yes, that's Omagine - and called the article positive. He emphasized that he wasn't offended by the questions. Inner City Press noted, and notes, that Ban Ki-moon's UN is embroiled in an expanding corruption scandal due to letting a real estate company, Sun Kian Ip and other Ng Lap Seng companies, into the UN on seemingly laudable pretexts. What has the UN of Ban Ki-moon (and Cristina Gallach) learned?
