By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 20 – A company called FS Hemisphere Associates LLC is seeking to get money from the Democratic Republic of the Congo - all under seal.
Late on August 10 it filed in the docket of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which Inner City Press covers daily while banned from the UN by SG Antonio Guterres amid its questions of his cover up of UN rapes in DRC, a letter seeking a "hearing on its ex parte application."
All of its other filings were sealed.
Inner City Press said it would stay on the case, and it has. On November 8, DOJ filed a letter to the assigned district Judge J. Paul Oekten that the US intends to file a statement of interest to "preclude any attempt by plaintiff to attach or execute on a bank account used by defendant for the DRC's UN Mission, to proteect bank accounts of the DRC UN Mission accredited diplomats and immunize a mission from discovery.
On November 18 Judge Oekten held a conference and Inner City Press covered it. Significantly, Judge Oetken was told that the accounts at issue, in the UN Federal Credit Union, as mixed and/or non-diplomatic accounts. That has happened before - Iran under its account to pay EDNY accused unregistered lobbying Afrasiabi, and UNFCU was involved in violating Sudan sanctions.
On December 17 the US filed a boiler plate defense of the DRC Mission to the UN, that its UNFCU accounts should not be touched nor any discovery required. The US Attorney's Office says "according to the records of the U.S. Mission to the UN, three of the named individuals (Paul Losoko Efambe Empole, Victoria Lieta Liolocha and Hippolyte Kingonsila Mfulu) are diplomats currently accredited to the DRC's UN Mission; one (Ignace R. Gata Mavita Wa Lufuta) is a diplomat previously accredited to the mission; and two (Bianza Therese Yvette Mpinga and Marie Huguette Nkus Ngung) are local hires of the Mission, although Ngung has indicated in her declaration that her position terminated in October 2019." We'll have more on this.
The case is FG Hemisphere Associates, LLC v. Democratic Republic of Congo et al., 19-mc-232 (Oetken)
We'll have more on this.
Inner City Press will stay on the case
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