Saturday, December 1, 2018

Amid UN Bribery Case Jeff Sachs and Steiner Shown As CEFC Advisers But Guterres Still No Audit, Bans Press


By Matthew Russell Lee, Video I II III RS HK

FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, December 1 – In the UN bribery prosecution by the US against Patrick Ho of China Energy Fund Committee, on the morning of November 30 the prosecution  detailed how CEFC bought UN PGA Sam Kutesa - and played an audio wiretap of Ho discussing bribing UN PGA John Ash with Sheri Yan, who did jail time in the first UN bribery case of Ng Lap Seng. But UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has refused to even start an audit of who else CEFC is bribing in the UN. In fact, CEFC remains accredited to the UN Economic and Social Council. Inner City Press asked repeatedly about it - and was roughed up and has been banned from any entry into the UN for 150 days and counting. Now we can report, as the first in a series, that among those who consorted with and advised China Energy Fund Committee were current UN Development Program Executive Director Achim Steiner - and Jeffrey Sachs. See photos here, from a CEFC brochure which they have tried to cover up. 

The UN has refused to answer Inner City Press questions about Steiner, CEFC and its pitching of weapons, despite the promise to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression David Kaye by the UN Department of Public Information with which Sachs has also had interaction. How it is acceptable for the UN to cover up bribery and weapons for oil offers under the claim of sustainable development and rough up and ban the Press which digs into it? Why hasn't Guterres begun an audit of CEFC? And where else does this inquiry lead? As to Uganda, CEFC instead of $500,00 case did a wire transfer - it was cheaper, through pliant HSBC bank which also money launders for Mexican drug cartels - and there was Ho, in purple like today, as Museveni's inauguration. He brought gift with him - a vase, painting, what locked to be a clock - to a dinner at Kutesa's residence. Then the prosecution flashed a list of the times Ho entered the UN - the UN has that information, you see, though they refused to provide it when Inner City Press asked, as to Francis Lorenzo, Ho and Carlos Garcia, preferring to ban Inner City Press. The prosecution left for Monday showing the agreement under which CEFC and its missing Chairman Ye bought unit 78B in Trump World Tower. After a wan cross examination by Ho's lawyer Benjamin Rosenberg (Judge Preska essentially shut him down), the jury was told they may get the case as early as Wednesday, when Antonio Guterres like his predecessor will be put up for sale at Cipriani on 42nd Street. This week, along with the depths of UN corruption, revealed how in China the formal government has a murky relationship with quasi state firms like CEFC, which on the one hand paved Xi's way into the Czech Republic and on the other, tried to get Chad's Deby to "make" Chinese state oil company CNPC to get it a piece of the action, perhaps for the Defense Committee of the Chinese Communisty Party, presumably the sources of the weapons and drones CEFC was offering to Deby and others in Libya and South Sudan. This is the NGO that Antonio Guterres has refused to audit and keeps in the UN while roughing up and banning Inner City Press. Kutesa's sale of the UN began through previous PGA Vuk Jeremic, who told Kutesa it would be "win - win" with CEFC. Then Ho emailed Kutesa's chief of staff Arthur Kafeero, whom Inner City Press wrote about before being banned from even entering the UN by UNSG Antonio Guterres. Later Ho did his emailing with Sam's wife Edith Gasana Kutesa, who asked for money to supposedly make good on an electoral campaign pledge to help Kutesa's young constituents (although she also bragged that Kutesa had no opposing candidate). She wrote, Youth are impatient - so send me the money! Ho arranged for $500,000 while pitching Edith on all the things (and people) CEFC had bought in Czech Republic. As Inner City Press reported and asked about before being roughed up and banned by UNSG Antonio Guterres, the Czech Ambassador headed ECOSOC, which refused to even look into CEFC's accreditation after Ho's arrest. CEFC used the UN to pitch weapons to dictators. And Guterres is covering up for them. Ho met Kutesa and his son Isaac for three hours in the PGA office - the type of entry Guterres is trying to prevent coverage of - and as his "PGA residence." Ho would email Kafeera and be scheduled as  speaker at the UN, which under Guterres took CEFC's $1 million even AFTER Ho was arrested. The UN of Guterres is corrupt. Periscope video here. Also on November 30, finishing up on the Chad scheme with FBI Agent Galicia, a CEFC web page with Bill Clinton was shown. We'll have more on this. On November 29, Senegal's former Foreign Minister Cheikh Gadio admitted he took $20,000 from an unnamed courier from a businessman he did not want to identify. Then Gadio pushed a journalist in the street and told Inner City Press he would answer its questions later. Video here (YouTube), shorter (Twitter). But if that seemed to give home to Ho, the upcoming Uganda scheme should not. Whether not a disputed prosecution chart comes into evidence, the undelying timeline is damning. Ho for CEFC told then UN President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic, who was already working for CEFC, that they wanted to meet his successor Sam Kutesa of Uganda. This culminated, while Kutesa was still UN PGA, in CEFC's chairman Ye Jianming being named a special adviser to the United Nations PGA. This is disgusting, given that CEFC was pushing weapons to Idriss Deby in Chad. More disgusting, Ho used Ye's inroaded into the Czech Republic, whose ambassador to the UN, chairing UN ECOSOC, refused to act on ECOSOC accredited CEFC even after Ho was arrested. Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric played their cover up roles in this. We'll have more on all this. Gadio is not the defendant in this bribery case - he is, at least so far, the prosecution's lead witness, with a Non Prosecution Agreement. But does that NPA cover Gadio, after his testimony, pushing a journalist on the street outside the court? Video here (YouTube), shorter (Twitter). Inner City Press along with other journalists, mostly from Hong Kong media, waiting outside the Southern District of New York courthouse at day's end. Gadio emerged and Inner City Press asked him how he thought the day had gone. He did not answer but rushed past. Inner City Press asked, louder, "Are you still running for president of Senegal?" Gadio turned back and pushed a journalist who was following him. This happened again a few blocks away. Finally on the stoop of a pharmacy on Canal Street Gadio's companion said he would not be answering questions today but to give your business card. Inner City Press gave its and asked if the former President of Senegal Gadio who took money from China for dropping Taiwan was Abdoulaye Wade. Gadio looked back in recognition - then was gone. Inner City Press previously questioned him in the UN when he was the Organization for Islamic Cooperation's envoy on the Central African Republic. Much has changed since then. As Inner City Press reported yesterday, Gadio was already on shaky ground when his email to Ho complaining he hadn't gotten Chinese money after, as Senegal's foreign minister in 2005, he worked to drop Taiwan and recognize the PR of China. But the bag of (campaign) cash allegation, dropped without warning in cross examination by Edward Kim, caused a break in the proceeding. Inner City Press rushed down to retrieve its phone and tweet and quickly live stream the news, here. Back upstairs, the name of the businessman was not disclosed, allegedly to protect him - from current president Macky Sall? We'll have more on this. Gadio testified for a second day about how he tried to broker weapons to Chad's President Idriss Deby from CEFC's Patrick Ho, who delivered gift boxes with $2 million in cash inside. Gadio's testimony got more specific, that in March 2015 Deby wanted to keep the meeting with CEFC small and confidential, "because of the war situation." Gadio cited Boko Haram, and Ho in a text message said CEFC's offer, for CNPC's 10%, was $200 million "and some arms." This is the head of a still UN accredited NGO, offering weapons for oil - with no audit by SG Antonio Guterres. Gadio tried to get paid for offering opportunities with the Chad - Cameroon pipelines. Gadio's firm Sarata had its bank account in Dubai closed for not being able to document where the money came from; his joint UN tax return with his wife, the head of the UN in Equatorial Guinea, was found to be false and is part of Gadio's non prosecution agreement. And the UN? And Gadio's reiterated dream to run for President of Senegal, after saying in writing he wanted money from China, while foreign minister, for flipping the country from Taiwan to the PR of China? The defense began its cross examination shortly before the lunch break, getting Gadio to admit he misspoke when he claimed Deby was calling him everyday. Mid-day Periscope video here. These will be more in the afternoon, which we'll report, while Guterres' UN tries to cover up the corruption in its walls - by banning the Press. Watch this site.
 - and what happened afterwards. But there are clouds on the horizon, unless Judge Preska swats them down, for the cross examination of Gadio. The lawyers for Ho, who it seems clear was using the corrupt UN's "special consultative status" to promote oil business and military equipment, point out these US statements, which the prosecutions does not want the jury to hear about: "That Dr. Gadio had intentionally omitted a key asset from his disclosures to
Pretrial Services (Ex. A at 20 (“[T]he only reasonable interpretation of that is Mr.
Gadio doesn’t want to admit his association with that firm although it is not
reasonably subject to dispute.”));
• That Dr. Gadio’s statement in an email to Dr. Ho in 2014 was “referring to a $2
million bribe that Mr. Gadio later wrote about how he should get a fee for and he
negotiated it and he got $400,000 to the firm that he omitted from the Pretrial
Services report” (id. at 21);
• That Dr. Gadio had “admitted facts that the law recognizes as criminal” (id. at
25);
• That Dr. Gadio had omitted foreign income from the Pretrial Services report
“both to avoid taxes and because he didn’t want anyone to know what it was for
because it’s a lot of money, $400,000 wire or two $200,000 wires . . .” (id.); and
• That the omissions are “an additional indication [Dr. Gadio] is running away from
what I’m referring to as the Gadio Firm which he omitted in the description of his
employment because that is a serious problem” (id. at 26). " These statements, like Gadio's threat to trash CEFC to Deby unless CEFC paid him money, are serious problems - unless blocked. The only certainty here is that the UN is corrupt, and a venue for corruption. Gadio texted Deby that his "Chinese friends" were coming to N'djamena with "excellent offers." But when the meeting happened, after speeches by Deby and Ho and CEFC's Zang, suddenly CEFC brought in gift boxes, "as big as that TV," Gadio told the court. Deby accepted them. But then Gadio, back in his hotel, got a call to return to meet Deby alone. According to Gadio, the coup leader Deby was offended. He had no problem with the cash staying in the country, but required a letter re-characterizing it as a donation. This was provided but Gadio criticized how it was written. By this time, the email made clear, Gadio was mostly focused on getting paid. He'd asked CEFC for $100,00 for a Dakar event co-sponsored by France's then-President Francois Hollande. (He also took money from Total, Hertz and a Zimbabwe cell phone company). Gadio texted his son Boubker in Dubai that if the Chinese didn't pay him by January "we will go to Chad in January and destroy their reputation and strategies in Chad! The President will listen to us!" This was ALL IN CAPS. When asked about the threat by Douglas Zolkind of the prosecution, getting ready for the defense's cross examination, Gadio said he as "translating my frustration" which Zolkind repeated as channeling. This might not work well on cross, which we will be covering, watch this site. Day 3 video here. Initially, UN President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic set it up, putting CEFC who he went on to work for in contact with Gadio. Both met Ho - Jeremic with UN Security who said nothing - in Trump World Tower. Gadio used the UN to reach Deby, in a "high level" meeting on Central African Republic. (In another Gadio UN connection, when confronted about the $2 million in cash Gadio called his wife, the head of the UN in Equatorial Guinea.) UN PGA Jeremic's deal making culminating in CEFC offering tanks and surveillance equipment to military coup leader Deby (Gadio lauded him a Pan Africanist, citing no less than Marcus Garvey). 
 Gadio's emails may kill off once and for all his ambition to run again for President of Senegal. In one, he complains that in 2005 when he was Foreign Minister and Senegal switched from recognizing Taiwan to the PR China, he didn't get paid. He wrote that the then President of Senegal got millions of dollars from the Chinese but didn't pass through any to him and that he complained to his Chinese counterparts about it. How will this play in Senegal? Watch this site. The opening statements were given on November 26. US Prosecutor Paul A. Hayden said Patrick Ho used UN accredited NGO CEFC to cultivate Sam Kutesa while he was President of the General Assembly, and is caught on audio tape planning to bribe other high UN official(s) - and still no audit by UNSG Antonio Guterres. On November 27 after former UN President of the General Assembly Vuk Jeremic under subpoena testified about the role of Cheikh Gadio in CEFC reaching Chad's president Deby, Gadio himself took the stand at 4:35 pm. Post-testimony stand-up video here.

He said he didn't know that CEFC's Ho would have $2 million in gift boxes to hand over at Deby's mansion -- he said he could "only think of it as a bribery attempt" -- but that he "didn't walk away." Why not? Gadio said he wanted to get paid for his and his company SARATAs work - and then Gadio said Deby needed help to fight Boko Haram, an excused use for example by the also long term president of Cameroon, Paul Biya. Inner City Press has heard from Senegal that, contrary to a portion of the defense's opening statement, Gadio is no longer running for president there but instead supports incumbent Macky Sall. He stopped abruptly a few minutes before five o'clock and, unwittingly, stayed in the court room as defense and prosecution began to argue about whethere Ho's visits to the US when he did not enter the UN should still come into evidence. Inner City Press has repeatedly asked the UN to disclose its knowledge of how many times Ho, from his base across First Avenue in Trump World Tower, entered the UN - but Guterres' UN has refused. Likewise, Gadio when asked to disclose his jobs after being Senegal's foreign minister listed a political party but NOT his stint as the Organization for Islamic Cooperation's envoy on Central African Republic. We'll have more on this - and this: earlier on November 27 a CEFC voluteer then staffer, David Riccardi-Zhu, said he was referred to CEFC by his father who worked for the UN. He attended meetings in CEFC's office / apartment in the Trump World Tower, where Ho met with a yet to be named "foreign representative from the United Kingdom." He described UN DESA bending over for CEFC and its sustainable development award - which in 2017 Guterres' DESA still took CEFC's money for even after Ho was arrested and indicted for UN bribery. Inner City Press asked the UN repeatedly about it - and was then roughed up by Guterres' security and has been banned from entering the UN 145 days and counting.  Earlier on November 27, Jeremic described doing work for CEFC while still PGA. He tried to get CEFC business with Mexico's PEMEX through "Emilio." He later tried to broker the sale of a potash mine - in court he said since this is related to fertilizer, it is "a high priority of the UN." He went to meetings in Trump Tower - the one across from the UN, in Apartment 78B, not the one on Fifth Avenue - and acted as a go-between for a CEFC Texas foray, with Noel Thompson who, Jeremic said, promoted wrestling in the UN. The UN comes off as entirely corrupt. And it emerged that Ho was trying to cut his own deal, around CEFC which is paying his legal fees. As soon as Jeremic left he started the process to sign on as a CEFC consultant at $333,333 a year. This require a waiver from Serbia, where he had been foreign minister. But the UN, then as now, has NO cooling off period. Inner City Press asked Jeremic about it during the court's lunch break. He said he had complied with rules - Serbian rules. There are no UN rules; UNSG Antonio Guterres refused to audit CEFC, lawlessly roughs up and bans Inner City Press which asks, including banning it from UNGA week which must now be seen as a hotbed of oil and gas and potash deals. We'll have more on this - it is unclear if Jeremic will take up the rest of the court's day, or if Gadio may start before the end of November 27. On November 26 at 9 am before heading to cover jury selection, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and Global Communicator Alison Smale: "November 26-7: On this the day the UN bribery trial of Ho / China Energy Fund Committee / PGA Kutesa begins, please immediately provide the UN's read out of the DSG's meeting Nov 22 with China's FM, and separately state where the increasingly reported issue of Chinese (government aligned) NGO bribery in the UN was discussed. Relatedly, again, what safeguards are in place for the SG's appearance, for which money is being charged, to ensure that the (Ng Lap Seng) pattern does not repeat itself on the evening of December 5, 2018." Hours later, lead UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq replied with this, seeming recycled from the Ng Lap Seng case: "Regarding question Nov. 26-7, we can say that the Organization has cooperated extensively in this matter by making thousands of pages of documents available, as well as providing access to UN personnel." Did Guterres' UN really make thousands of pages of documents available in this Patrick Ho case? If so, how can Guterres claim the case does not concern the UN and merit an audit? We'll have more on this. In the US' opening, Hayden described Ho meeting Cheikh Gadio for the first time steps from the UN; defense lawyer Benjamin Rosenberg countered that Gadio's desire to run for president of Senegal made him cut a deal at any cost. Periscope just after leaving court, here. Longer YouTube here. Before these openings, dozens of prospective jurors were whittled down to 12 with three alternates. Among those not agreed on to stay were the editor of a major magazine and a retired investment banker who travels to get Democrats elected to national office. (We are not using names or more - the insider scribes say there is an understanding, on which we'll have more). Most jurors said they read few newpapers, with a reference to the Daily News for the commute, Yahoo "junk" and social media. They filed into Courtroom 12A, the prosecution estimated the trial will take two, possibly three weeks. Ho was brought in, wearing purple; he looked to the back of the courtroom, eight or so most Asian journalists, Inner City Press, no one apparently from the UN. Some 35 prospective jurors were assigned numbers and were told the case involved charges of bribery of Chad's President Idriss Deby and of Sam Kutesa, then the President of the UN General Assembly, still Uganda's foreign minister. Did any juror feels biased? No one raised their hand. Any juror particularly burdened by a two or three week trial? Many stood up and, after sidebars, some were excused including one Amy Tan (called back to the sidebar twice). The defense had a jury consultant, one Dr. Blackburn, described to the jurors by the defense as "with us." Mid-day Periscope live stream at courthouse door here. The day before the U.S. has asked that Cheikh Gadio not be asked what he heard about how the $2 million Ho gave to Chad's President Idriss Deby was used. The government argues in a letter motion to Jude Loretta A. Preska that Ho didn't know: "Gadio has no personal knowledge as to what happened to the $2 million cash that the defendant and his CEFC colleagues brought to Chad and presented to President Déby. Gadio has no firsthand information as to whether these funds were ultimately used, in whole or part, for “good” or “bad” or “permissible” or “impermissible” purposes after CEFC sent the so-called “donation” letter. However, Gadio’s 3500 material reflects that, at some point, a third-party told Gadio that the money was directed to a supposed good and permissible use. Gadio does not know whether this is true, and in any event, he never spoke about this with the defendant. Thus, the defendant should be precluded from cross-examining Gadio
about what he learned after-the-fact from any third-party." The U.S. also seeks to prevent Gadio being cross-examined about misstatements to pre-trial services when he was Ho's co-defendant. It is not clear when Preska will rule on the letter motion. She has said the trial will begin at 10 am each day but she is willing to hear arguments in her chambers before that. Inner City Press, which covered the pre-trial hearing even while banned from the UN by UNSG Antonio Guterres who is trying to cover it up, not even auditing CEFC's other and ongoing activities in the UN, will be covering the trial. Ho has tried to use CEFC's ongoing UN "Special Consultative Status" to avoid criminal charges. This and Ho's other motions were denial by Judge Preska on November 14, including a motion to exclude testimony from Cheikh Gadio, from government expert Mr. Walkout, and to exclude Ho's dealings with Sam Kutesa's predecessor as UNGA President Sam Ashe. All of this will come in at trial - and makes the failure by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to even audit CEFC's bribes in the UN more outrageous. This UN-accredited NGO offered to broker arms not only to Chad but also Qatar, Libya and South Sudan, about which Guterres and the UN purport to care so much. Ho and CEFC offered themselves as  way to evade Iran sanctions. This evidence will come in a trial; the government has agreed not to mention terrorism or US - Iran relations. A 23 minute video of Ho's UN speeches will not come in, being called "gauzy" as is the UN of Guterres who has banned Inner City Press which covers the UN's increasing corruption, from Ng Lap Seng and Ashe to CEFC, Kutesa and beyond, ongoing. We'll have more on this. Ho was trying to exclude testimony from initial co-defendant Cheikh Gadio about Chadian President Idriss Deby's reaction to the bribe. The papers were filed on November 13 and are first being reported by Inner City Press, which as it covers this second UN bribery case has been roughed up and now banned for 132 days by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who won't even audit CEFC's ongoing activities in the UN. Four months after the arrest for UN bribery of former Senegalese foreign minister Cheik Gadio and Patrick Ho, the head of China Energy Fund Committee full funded by CEFC China Energy, his ultimate boss at CEFC Ye Jianming was brought in for questioning in China. On October 4 Ho was again denied bail. Periscope video here. On October 22, the new trial date was set for November 26. On November 12 Inner City Press, banned from the UN by Secretary General Antonio Guterres amid its questions about the CEFC bribery and its connection to the Ng Lap Seng conviction, asked Guterres and his spokesmen: "November 12-4: Now that it is clear that Foreign Intelligence Surveilance Act wiretaps show Sheri Yan, jailed for UN bribery in the PGA John Ashe case, communicating and planned with Patrick Ho of CEFC, please explain why SG Antonio Guterres has not even started an audit into the range CEFC's bribery and interactions in the UN, why it still has access to UN while Inner City Press which which pursued Ng Lap Seng's and Yan's bribery even into the UN Press Briefing Room (29 Jan 2016) and the Patrick Ho / CEFC case, has been denied access to anything in the UN for 131 days with no due process." Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq conducted a noon briefing Inner City Press was banned from, starting with a total of three correspondents. Video here. He and the UN have not answered since, see below. After he did not answer - but he did answer Yahoo News for a story which, inexplicably, does not mention Guterres or his failure to audit CEFC's activities at the UN. Others who have done nothign about the bribery, or about Guterres' roughing up and banning of Inner City Press, like HRW's Ken Roth and FP's Colum Lynch, belatedly retweeted the Ho / Yan corruption story. But what will they and the UN they love so much do? On November 4 Ho's attempt to "suppress all evidence obtained or derived under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act" was denied, with a decision that no hearing on it was needed. The FISA information includes wiretaps of Ho and another bribing NGO the Global Sustainability Foundations's Sheri Yan or her deputy planning to pay bribes. This is described today by the Sydney Morning Herald, which while saying that UN officials who it leaves unnamed are lavishing praises on the Belt and Road which Ho now uses as a defense of his alleged bribes, fails to mention main praiser Antonio Guterres. Nor does SMH - Shaking My Head -- mention that unlike even Ban Ki-mon with Ng Lap Seng, Guterres has refused to even start an audit into Ho's (and Yang II's) bribery in the UN, but instead had roughed up and banned Inner City Press which reports on it. Ng Lap Seng paid money to a group Guterres is slated to headline a fundraiser for on December 5, a group he and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric use to support their attack on the investigative Press. We'll have more on this. Hong Kong television has broadcast a report on these alleged UN and Deby bribes, including an interview with Inner City Press which has been banned from the UN by Antonio Guterres amid its coverage of UN corruption and Guterres' refusal to even audit, has been broadcast. The Court's ruling against Ho on FISA notes that "FISA requires a finding of probable cause to believe that: (1) the target of the electronic surveillance or physical search is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power." There will be at least one more court session before the trial starts; voir dire and jury instructions are being debated. The reckoning time is approaching. In a hearing Inner City Press covered - there were no other UN correspondents there, for this UN bribery case - it emerged that the prosecution has turned over 3,300 emails to a vendor, and that each side will meet with Judge Preska "in camera" about Confidential Information, under US v Mustafa, 992 F. Supp. 2d 335. Video here. We'll have more on this. Ho's lawyers, paid by CEFC, are arguing that the Chinese government's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) campaign, under which they says Ho's payments were made, must be considered at the delayed trial with testimony from "Professor Kirby as 'an expert in contemporary China’s business, economic, and political development with a particular focus on international activities.'" Given the many timesas UN Secretary General that Antonio Guterres, who has refused to even audit CEFC's and Ho's payments in the UN, has praised China's One Belt, One Road - might Guterres be called or offer himself as a pro-Ho defense witness at trial? Guterres already maintains a secret banned from the UN list including "political activists," see here. His failure to audit is also covering up UN-accredited NGO CEFC's communications with "Iranian officials, apparently so that they could discuss potential transactions involving oil or precious metals. (See Gov’t Br. at 11-12.)  The government proffers “evidence of the defendant’s interest in and willingness
to broker transactions in arms.”