By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN- Review
EDNY / UN GATE, March 3 -- As Goldman Sachs Tim Leissner was being cross-examined for the second day, the extent of the corruption of the United Arab Emirates began to come into view, at least for Kurt.
Leissner said he had carried a letter about bribes Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib (via Jho Low) to be delivered to AUE Sheikh Mansour. Leissner told his Goldman partners that he had given the letter directly to Mansour. But that UAE royal wouldn't get out of bed for less than a million dollars. So it was at the mansion of Khadem Al Qubaisi that the letter was given, Leissner now said.
But what was the color of Khadem Al Qubaisi's mansion? Uh, light, Leissner said.
So not blue, Roger Ng's lawyer snarked. Did it have a gate?
I don't remember, Leissner said.
He was hobnobbing around in the Emirates Palace, meeting with Abu Dhabi royal wealth funds, paying bribes these corruptos didn't even need. But why not take them?
Kurt was in the back row of the EDNY overflow courtroom, taking notes by hand since he had to leave his phone down in the media room on the third floor. From there he watched the UN "press" conferences he was banned from.
The United Arab Emirates, in the form and face of Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, was the president of the UN Security Council. Twice the UAE abstained on Ukraine.
Kurt emailed their Mission to the UN to ask about it and 1MDB, and to ask for the WebEx code to attend Nusseibeh's press conference. Nothing, no answer at all. On UNTV Nusseibeh blathered about the UAE's commitment on climate change, propaganda that another UN censor was there for months doing, silent on political opponents locked up and Uighurs returned by the UAE to China for "re-education" or worse. It was to this that Kurt would turn - and he hoped he could get lawyer Michael Randall Long and his new Malaysian client to work with him.
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The UAE's role in the 1MDB rip-off went beyond the Sheikh Mansour letter that Tim Leissner had on him when he was arrested at Dulles Airport in 2018. Najib has called the Crown Prince himself, Mohammed bin Zayad al Nahyan and cooked up a scheme to cover up for his stepson, who funded The Wolf of Wall Street.
In Malaysia, Najib went to jail. In the UAE, Sheikh Mansour was in charge of the Judicial Department. Only the fall guy Khad al Qubaissy, like Roger Ng, was put in the dock (in his case, in jail), along with Mohammed Badaway Al Husseiny.
So why were they no answers to the press from the UAE Mission on 46th Street, from Lana Nusseibeh or her stand-in for abstentions Mohamed Abushahab? And what was their role in these rip offs? #The WeaselOfWallStreet
Kurt had first heard of Jho Low while still in the UN, before he was thrown out. Jho Low appeared at a UN press conference in front of the ubiquitous and now defiled logo. #TheWeaselOfWallStreet, 1st in a new series
Inner City Press is also covering US v. Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, the self-rapped Crocodile of Wall Street, a story here, song here
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