SDNY COURT/UN GATE, Sept 12 – This
year's Inner City Press project testing sealed and secret
proceedings has moved, for the first time, from national
courts to the United Nations' own internal justice
system.
Vitaly Vanshelboim, a former Assistant
Secretary-General who ran UNOPS's Sustainable
Infrastructure Impact Investments program, an executive so
trusted internally that UNOPS's own Executive Director
called him "Mr. UNOPS" and staff described him as a "one
man band" holding "all the cards," was found by the UN's
own Dispute Tribunal to have failed to disclose private
financial arrangements with British businessman David
Kendrick, while UNOPS steered tens of millions of dollars
in strategic reserve funds toward Kendrick-linked
investments.
The UN Dispute Tribunal ordered Vanshelboim
to repay the Organization $58.8 million and withheld his
pension. On appeal, the UN Appeals Tribunal, in a judgment
issued June 17, 2026, granted him partial relief —
reducing his exposure, though the underlying findings
about his conduct stand. Separately, and not incidentally,
Vanshelboim was arrested in Spain in March 2025 on a
warrant from the U.S. District Court for the Southern
District of New York, which Inner City Press covers daily
in-person as it covers the UN from the gate, and Spain's
National Court approved his extradition to the United
States in October 2025 on charges of bribery, wire fraud,
and money laundering.
What the public can actually see of this
dual proceeding is uneven. The Dispute Tribunal's and
Appeals Tribunal's judgments themselves are public. The
underlying pleadings — the appeal brief, the
Secretary-General's answer, the "Joint Submission of
Agreed and Disputed Facts" that the Appeals Tribunal noted
spans some 50 pages of factual disagreement — are not,
absent a specific request.
Both tribunals' own procedural rules, it
turns out, anticipate exactly this: UNDT's Practice
Direction No. 6 provides that any person may seek access
to non-judgment materials in a case to which they are not
a party, through a written request to the Registrar;
UNAT's Practice Direction No. 1 similarly allows any
person to file a motion for the same, since filings before
that tribunal are otherwise treated as confidential by
default. Inner City Press has now tested both
mechanisms directly, filing a written request with the
Dispute Tribunal's Registry and a formal motion with the
Appeals Tribunal, seeking the underlying pleadings and
factual submissions in the Vanshelboim matter.
Previously, on July 16, 2024 a supposedly
public proceeding in fact banned coverage. See, 16 July
2024 UNDT/NY/2023/038 (Rotheroe) Disciplinary matters
UNJSPF Hearing on the merits 10:00am 1. On 27
October 2023, the Applicant, a former Deputy Director of
Investment Management with the Office of Investment
Management (“OIMâ€), United Nations Joint Staff Pension
Fund (“UNJSPFâ€), filed an application in which she
challenges the decision to impose upon her the
disciplinary measure of separation from service with
compensation in lieu of notice and without termination
indemnity. The link led, after a time, to "You
were denied access to the meeting."
Back when Inner City Press appealed (here
is an appeal, and 2021 UNAT decision in Matthew Russell
Lee v. Antonio Guterres on DocumentCloud here,
on UN site only in PDF download, here)
to the UN Appeal Tribunal, the time to decide was
extended, a proceeding held in secret and a one line
denial issued: "2020-1502 Matthew Russell Lee
against Secretary-General of the United Nations Appeal not
receivable and dismissed." No reasoning was
given, no opportunity to be heard. And now, no action as
of September 13 on this July 25, 2026 application to UN
MALU, here.
The Vanshelboim
case sits at a genuinely unusual intersection: a UN
internal disciplinary proceeding, a US federal criminal
prosecution, and a Spanish extradition fight, all
addressing overlapping allegations about the same $60
million in diverted funds.
So far Inner City Press has received:
From: UNAT1 <unat1@un.org> Date: Sun,
Sep 13, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Subject: Press Motion for Access to Documents Filed in a
Case to Which Movant Is Not a Party, Pursuant to Practice
Direction No. 1, Para. 18 — Case No. 2024-1967, Judgment
No. 2026-UNAT-1650, Vanshelboim v. Secretary-General of
the United Nations
To: matthew.lee [INNERCITYPRESS]
Thank you for your
communication. We will revert to you in due course."
Like on Inner City Press' July 25, 2026 application for
access to the September 22 UNGA speeches, still not acted
on?
Whether the UN's own courts will actually
grant access under rules that say, on their face, that
they should is the next thing to watch. Watch this site
