After UN Bribery Verdict Against Ho of China Energy Fund Committee Jeff Sachs Denial Shows Need For Audit

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC Video

UNITED NATIONS, December 15 – At the UN under Secretary General Antonio Guterres there has been entirely unaddressed bribery, including offers of weapons for oil by UN non governmental organizations which Guterres refuses to even audit - while roughing up and banning the Press which asks him about it. 
On 1 December 2018, before seven UN bribery guilty verdicts against Patrick Ho of China Energy Fund Committee, Inner City Press reported that Jeffrey Sachs, a long time UN (part time) official, was on a CEFC-UN Advisory Board, and tweeted the photograph, here. Now on December 15 Sachs has denied it, saying it is absurd. Really? Pressed, Sachs says "I attended an annual luncheon on two occasions (1 per year) hosted by the Chinese Gov for UN Ambassadors, which CEPC apparently catered.  I once went to a HK reception Mr. Ho was present.  That's it." Really? China Energy Fund Committee was more than a caterer. And this denial shows more clearly than ever why an audit of with whom CEFC has dealt with at and through the UN is necessary, and how irresponsible or worse Guterres is being. Now we are publishing the CEFC document listing Sachs' role, here on Scribed, here for download on Patreon.

Need for UN Audit Shown By ... by on Scribd

It also lists UN officials including Warren Sach, as well as Mr. José Manuel Viegas (Portugal) Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF) at the OECD; Mr. Sun Xiansheng (China) Secretary-General of the International Energy Forum (IEF); Ms. Marie-José Nadeau (Canada) Chair of the World Energy Council; Mr. Thanin Pa-Em (Thailand) Deputy Secretary-General at the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board; Mr. Zhang Guobao (China) Former Director of China’s National Energy Administration; Mr. Christopher Martenson (USA) Economic Researcher, Writer and Trend Forecaster; Dr. Ken Koyama (Japan) Chief Economist and Managing Director at the Institute of Energy Economics in Japan (IEEJ); Dr. Christoph Frei (Switzerland); Dr. Milica Bajiæ-Brkoviæ (Serbia) Former President of ISOCARP, Member of the Executive Committee of International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP); Dr. José Goldemberg (Brazil); Mr. Mark Fulton (UK) Founding Partner of Energy Transition Advisors Pty Ltd; Dr. Nawal Al-Hosany (UAE) Director of Sustainability at Masdar City; Dr. Leena Srivastava (India) Honorary Executive Director at The Energy and Resources Institute; Mr. John Hofmeister (USA) Founder & Chief Executive of Citizens for Affordable Energy, Former President of Shell Oil Company and, yes, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs (USA) Director of The Earth Institute, Special Advisor to UN SG. We'll have more on this - and on the role of  current UN Development Program Executive Director Achim Steiner. See photos here, from a CEFC brochure which they have tried to cover up.

Three years ago Macau based businessman Ng Lap Seng was arrested and charged with bribing UN General Assembly President Josh Ashe and others, though Sun Kian Ip Foundation and other groups still in the UN. Ng was convicted of multiple violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and money laundering. But the issue of faux NGO purchase of the UN hasn't gone away. In fact, a second UN bribery case ended this week in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with seven guilty verdicts.

In this second case, Patrick Ho was found guilty of seven of eight counts of FCPA and month laundering. (He was only not guilty on money laundering in Chad - where the bribe was not through any US bank but in cash, $2 million in a gift box). The evidence showed that the NGO he ran, China Energy Fund Committee, used its ongoing UN consultative status to pay bribes to Ugandan foreign minister - and Ashe's successor as President of the UN General Assembly -- Sam Kutesa. He was working with precedessor Vuk Jeremicwhile Jeremic was UN PGA. CEFC even offered weapons, tanks and drones, to Chad's long time president Idriss Deby for oil blocks or a stake in the Chad Cameroon pipeline. (Inner City Press published documents here.)

The night of the verdict I asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres what he will do to clean up the UN, where he has left CEFC without any audit, still in consultative status with the UN. On his way from his Mercedes to a glitzy fundraiser including George and Amal Clooney, Guterres refused to answer. The next day when asked by another journalist why Guterres had refused to answer banned Inner City Press' question, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric claimed that the UN has “cooperated” with the prosecution. But the bribery group remains in the UN, unaudited.

Why has the case of US versus Ho, and now the guilty verdicts, garnered relatively so little interest, with the corruption of the UN exposed by it scarcely mentioned all? SG Guterres is hoping it goes away. In terms of corruption, he did not disclose and refuses to answer on the African business links of his son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres. He refuses to answer how much he spends in public funds flying to his home in Lisbon at least sixteen times sofar as SG. 

   So CEFC remains an accredited non governmental organization with the UN's Economic and Social Council, while investigative Inner City Press for which I have been covering the case has been dis-accredited by and ousted from the UN, put on a list of those permanently banned without notice, due process or appeal. On December 7 I was informed I am banned from a “UN Human Rights” event on December 10 to be addressed by Guterres and his human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet. But this reporting will not stop - Guterres' corruption of the UN must be addressed, through oversight or as is discussed elsewhere, impeachment. From the lofty goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to Guterres' censorship for corruption is UNacceptable.

  With UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour set to speak in the UN on human rights day on December 10, Inner City Press responded to an invitation and was told, "Thank you for registering to attend the Human Rights Day event at the United Nations on Monday 10 December. On Monday, please come to the UN Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue opposite 45th street starting at 2pm, at which time entry passes will be distributed." 

Then, past six p.m. on Friday, December 7 thisfrom Bachelet's and Gilmour's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: "Dear Matthew, We have received notification from UN Security that your name was flagged as "BARRED" on the list we submitted for passes for Monday's event (3pm, ECOSOC Chamber).We will therefore not have a pass for you and are unable to facilitate entry.
Thank you for your interest and best regards,
OHCHR New York Office." Photo of email here.

   Inner City Press immediately wrote back, to the sender and Bachelet and her assistant, to Andrew Gilmour and to the moderator of the event, "Particularly since you are the UN Office of the High Commissioner for *Human Rights,* did you not ask why a journalist who asks the Secretary General and his spokesmen about the killings in Cameroon, Burundi, UN corruption, UN peacekeepers' sexual abuse of civilians, and Sri Lanka, is “BARRED” from attending your human rights event - without any hearing or appeal? I will appreciate your Office's answer to this."  We'll have more on this.

 Bachelet gave a speech on October 15 in the UN's Third Committee, she emphasized a prioritization of social and economic rights and said one of the officials of her office is "on mission in Silicon Valley" in the US. There are questions about this - but Inner City Press which has covered human rights and the UN for more than a decade was for the first time banned from access a High Commissioner's speech. This has been raised repeated to Bachelet since she took office but she has so far done nothing, not even responded. Meanwhile on October 12 Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya Secretary General Antonio Guterres took a golden statue and favors in the Fifth (Budget) Committee and remains silent on the slaughter of Anglophones, was elected to a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. This system is failing - but if Bachelet cannot even answer on Guterres maintaining a secret banned list including not only Inner City Press but also "political activists" - and anti-corruption campaigners - then the UN of Guterres has hit its newest low. 

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.” 

After UN's Jeff Sachs Endorses Dho to Head UNWTO, UN Tells ICP to Ask Sachs About It

By Matthew Russell Lee, Series

UNITED NATIONS, April 24 – Facing US budget cuts, how does today's UN react? It extended the UN contract of Jeffrey Sachs, for example, then refused to explain his quotes or what the upside of extending his contract is. Inner City Press had to repeatedly ask the UN to get it to acknowledge the contract extension, which was then re-reported and added to by Fox, here, which noted Sachs did not explain himself. Now on April, citing and using his UN role, Sachs has issued this endorsement of Dho Young-shim to head the UN World Tourism Organization. Sachs' letter says "in my capacity as a senior UN advisor." On April 24 Inner City Press put the question to the UN's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric who as before claimed he didn't know but would look into. From the UN transcript: Inner City Press: I also want to ask you about Jeffrey Sachs again.  I’m sorry to do it, but I saw over the weekend that you said, you know, you haven’t seen the quotes or you’ve now seen the quotes, but I wanted to ask you, is it appropriate for a UN official, even in the position that you’ve said, to render public endorsements in contested elections in the UN system?   There’s a candidate for the World Tourism Organization, candidate Dho of South Korea, and there’s an online report that Jeffrey Sachs issued an open letter saying this is the right person.  So can that be done…?

Spokesman:  I don’t know.  You could check with his office if that’s, in fact, the case…
Inner City Press: No, but I’m asking you what the UN rules about UN Special Adviser…

Spokesman:  We expect any UN staff member or Special Adviser to exercise judgment.  I’m not… I have no way of verifying what you’re saying to me is true.  We can look into it.  So I’m not commenting on this particular case.

Inner City Press:  Right, but would it be a failure of judgment to…?

Spokesman:  I’m not going to… I’m telling you what our principle position is, and I’ll try to find out what actually was said, if anything.  Okay.  Thank you.

   He's said this before, without any action. So a UN official, recently extended by Antonio Guterres, is making an endorsement in a contested election to head a UN agency. We'll have more on this. Back on April 18 Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric about not a quote but an article Sachs had published the night before on CNN, "How Trump Could Make the US a Climate Pariah over Paris Pact." From the UN Transcript: 

Inner City Press: I'd asked you before about some comments by Jeffrey Sachs, the UN Special Adviser on the SDGs, and you said you hadn't seen them.  I don't know if you have yet, but I want to ask you about an article that was published last night, yesterday evening, by Jeffrey Sachs entitled How Trump Could Make the US a Climate Pariah over Paris Pact.  Given that it's directly within the scope of his mandate, is this a statement as a UN official?  You said the other ones weren't so…

Spokesman:  No, his…

Inner City Press:  It's on climate change.  It's on the SDGs…

Spokesman:  It's not, as far as I know, it is not a statement made in his… in… in his capacity as a UN envoy.

Inner City Press: You said at the time that you hadn't seen the other comments.  Have you taken any time to actually take a look at them?

Spokesman:  I'm aware of his comments. 

  And? On April 11, Inner City Press asked Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: you'd said previously that the Secretary-General had decided to extend the contract of Jeffrey Sachs as a Special Adviser on the Millennium Development Goals.  So I wanted to ask you, he has been quoted that the US President is "the quintessential short-term populist and a nonstop font of lies."  So I wanted to know, in what capacity does he speak?  Is this something that the Secretary-General considered?

Spokesman:  If, indeed, he said those things, that would not be in his capacity as a UN envoy, but I haven't seen those quotes myself.

Inner City Press:  Well, there's a story…

Spokesman:  Okay.

Inner City Press:  He didn't choose to answer about them either to deny them, and he has written an article talking about climate change fantasy, and he called… there's a number of things that he said.

Spokesman:  He has a role.  When he speaks as a UN envoy, it's fairly clear.

Inner City Press:  Right.  But my question is, do you think as a recent article says, do you think this is a wise thing, by the Secretary-General, if he’s, in fact, so concerned with continuing US funding, that he's even making post decisions for that basis, is this… what's the upside to Jeffrey Sachs that justify this downside?

Spokesman:  A number of people have been extended for, for a year during a transition period.

  Why is Sachs needed, for an entire transition year? We'll have more on this.  Generally Guterres' UN has been cautious; many have portrayed Guterres' acceptance of David Beasley as an attempt to keep the US funds flowing. But there are more surprises. For weeks the UN has refused to answer Inner City Press if the UN has kept Jeffrey Sachs on as a UN official. Finally on April 4, when Inner City Press asked yet another time, Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric confirmed that Sachs is still a UN official -- even after he stood on the steps of the UN residence on Sutton Place when Ban Ki-moon used it for a campaign announcement, and said he would advise Ban's campaign for South Korean president (which quickly collapsed.). Vine Camera video here. From the April 4 transcript: 

Inner City Press: Yesterday, I e-mailed you about Jeffrey Sachs.  Does he remain in his position?

Spokesman:  Yes, he does.

 That position is "Special Adviser to the SG on the Sustainable Development Goals." According to the UN website, Sachs has been a UN official since 2002: that is, for 15 years. As a UN official, beyond flacking for the Ban even as corruption scandals enveloped him, Sachs has written "Donald Trump’s Climate Fantasies." This is apparently a series: there is also "Why Millennials Will Reject Trump." Sachs' forays into politics have not been limited to South Korea. From March 31: "Trump Calls Congressional Inquiry a ‘Witch Hunt.'  We obviously need a special prosecutor at this stage." Sachs is quoted, on Trump: "'I have to live with this idiot every day' #pageberlin."

  This contrasts to the UN's parallel M.O. of stealth and stonewalling, with a limited and carefully picked media, describing lobbying for funds as "UN advocacy." When Secretary General Antonio Guterres went on a trip to Kenya, in New York the Press was not informed of any chance to go. But there Guterres appeared with Al Jazeera, and then in a profile in the Washington Post from a usually hard-hitting reporter, this time quoting the UN's Herve Ladsous, who has mismanaged UN Peacekeeping and the Press for five years. The article described the UN Foundation as "advocating for UN causes." But shouldn't issues like accountability for victims of UN cholera in Haiti, and opposing censorship in the UN and for example in Western Cameroon, with no Internet for more than 70 days, be "UN causes"? In fact, UN Foundation lobbies against US budget cuts to the UN, even if targeted and designed to bring about reform. The UN's cause, it seems, is to perpetuate itself.

  Recently in the UN basement as Inner City Press came in late through a long line of tourists and students at the metal detectors Inner City Press must now use everyday since the UN evicted it for covering corruption, a meeting in a windowless side conference room was ending. Outside in the hall it was labeled, Congressional Group. But inside on a TV screen it said, “UN Foundation: Congressional Learning Trip.” UN Foundation was set up, with Ted Turner's money, to help and now defend the UN. The UN's point person on sexual abuse, long a topic of interest for such Republicans as Senator Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), is Jane Holl Lute, who before that was a high official of the UN Foundation and of the Obama Administration. She was notably absent when a “new” sexual abuse strategy, immediately critiqued by the group Code Blue and others, was announced. On March 13, Inner City Press asked UN Spokeman Stephane Dujarric, UN Transcript here: 

Inner City Press: last week, I saw a meeting in the basement 1B held by the UN Foundation.  It was called Congressional Learning Trip.  And so, I guess I wanted to know, number one, what is the relationship between the UN and UN Foundation?  Can it hold a meeting of its own accord with congresspeople?  Are you aware whether it was only… you know, was it a bipartisan meeting?

Spokesman:  It was a bipartisan… I mean, it wasn't… it was far from a stealth meeting as you described it, because, obviously…
Inner City Press: On the outside, it was congressional group, and then, when you opened the door, it said UN Foundation, so it was stealth.

Spokesman:  Right.  It was a programme run by the Better World Campaign, and they often bring up staffers.  And it was very much a bipartisan group of staff members who work with senators and House members, both Democratic and Republican, an information tour of the UN.

Inner City Press:  Can groups that are more critical of the UN or do… or are seeking UN reform, such as Code Blue, such as Government Accountability Project, can they schedule their meetings in 1B?

Spokesman:  I think we've… I think… I've been here for about 16 years.  I think often groups that are very critical of the UN are able to speak at the UN.

Question:  No, but in… can they sponsor congresspeople in 1B?

Spokesman:  That's… it's up to them to see who they're willing to invite.

  This is a bogus answer: could GAP and Code Blue book UN Conference Rooms to instruct US Congresspeople about what needs to be reformed at the UN? We'll have more on this.

  (One of Guterres' team is quoted that Guterres' goal is to say out of Trump's Twitter feed. Is telling a newspaper that the best way to make it come about? And if Trump or Rex Tillerson eschewed a traveling press corps for hand-picked coverage, there would be and is outcry. The Free UN Coalition for Access asks, Is it acceptable by the UN?)

   Down in Washington, Democratic sources on the Hill told Inner City Press of a visit by the Obama administration's appointee to the UN, Jeffrey Feltman. Strangely, perhaps, they list the topic not as involving only Feltman's specific UN job, the Department of Political Affairs he has been held over to head until April Fools Day in 2018, but “budget cuts to peacekeeping.” The head of that Department, held by France for more than 20 years, should be the one lobbying. But Herve Ladsous is unappealing in the best of times; now he left on March 31, replaced by his fellow Frenchman Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Will Lacroix be able to stave off cuts? Will he continue to use public funds, more than a quarter of it from US taxpayers, to pay peacekeepers accused of rape such as in the contingents from Burundi and Cameroon?

   Inner City Press on March 10, still under censorship restrictions imposed without any hearing or appeal after it sought to cover the fallout from the UN bribery indictment of Macau-based businessman and former Clinton funder Ng Lap Seng, was Banned from a simple photo opportunity on the UN's 38th floor. The Ban's by the Department of Public Information. When asked the basis, the UN's holdover Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq gave no reason or definition being used; he barely looked up from his computer, from which he never did answer Inner City Press' questions on Cameroon abuses and the UN's Cameroon Resident Coordinator Najat Rochdi blocking it on Twitter, nor how much "extra-budgetary" funds the UN proposes to use on Louise Arbour's D1 head of office.

   The moves are stealth, like much in the UN these days - and have the potential of backfiring. Watch this site.

UNcensored 12: After UN Evicted Press, Jeff Sachs Two-Step, Burundi Tweets, O'Brien in the Lobby

By Matthew Russell Lee, Part of Series, Video

UNITED NATIONS, February 21 – Even evicted and restricted by the UN I tried to keep covering in, for example on Burundi. Before being thrown out of my office I had one morning seen a group of four protesters with a Burundian flag and I ran down there. I broadcast the protest on Periscope, interviewed the organizer, up from Louisiana as it happened, Manisha Lievin, and put the whole thing online.
 
  Burundi's Ambassador Albert Shingiro who blocked me on Twitter mocked my video of the protest, saying if only four people are upset, it's not much of a moment. Hey, it's a small country, with even fewer in New York. I blasted away at Shingiro, and Burundians from Toronto and Kigali replied and sent me photos of soldiers who'd killed protesters and were now being deployed on Ladsous' peacekeeping missions.

   I was covering a meeting on Burundi of the Peacebuildling Configuration, in person because I no longer had access through my office ot the UN's in-house EZTV. There was no outlet and I was live tweeting, Switzerland's Ambassador and the omnipresent Shingiro thanking everyone, thug-like -- when my phone rang.

  It was Jeffrey Sachs, all around UN guy, to whom like nearly all other Under Secretaries General I'd send an email about my plight. I went out into the Vienna Cafe, still loud. Sachs said he was traveling but wanted more information, he would try to talk with Cristina Gallach.

  It was ironic, because I'd attacked Sachs in the past, including for claiming he was a dollar a year UN official when UNDP paid for his travel, I'd gotten a copy of the check. “Be careful,” he'd told me at the time and I'd reported that too. And here he was trying to intervene for me. I was impressed. “This is not good for the UN,” he said. It struck me this could be the silver bullet, one of the UN's name-brand outside supporters. Wake up and smell Sachs' Rwandan shade-grown coffee, Gallach, I thought. I sent him more information then went to the noon briefing.

  I asked my usual mix of questions - two Africa, one Sri Lanka, two corruption - then went and sat on one of the two benches in the lobby to type them up. I tweeted people I saw passing by, and got up to chase UN Relief Chief Stephen O'Brien to the elevators.

  I asked him, “The Saudi ambassador said you don't want a humanitarian resolution in the Security Council, like the one you asked for on Syria - is it true?”

  O'Brien stopped and said “I hadn't heard that.”

  “It was on camera,” I told him. “It's on the webcast.”

  “I'll have to see it then,” he said. The elevator doors closed behind him. I went back to my bench - my laptop was still there - and tweeted out his answer. I could still report this way, I decided. It was different but I could do it.

   Still when it hit six o'clock I went to the front of the lobby, facing the traffic circle they had marched me around. There was a black sedan parked there with UN Security. I would wait for Ban Ki-moon to come off the elevator and ask him why this was happening. I paced up and down.

  Guards came and stared at me, but none came over to talk. Though almost no one did this any more, this was or had been an accepted stakeout. A British journalist named James Bone had used it, to lie in wait for UNHCR's Ruud Lubbers about his sexual harassment -- alleged, alleged -- of Cynthia Byrzac. Bone had asked Lubbers to touch him as he had Ms Byrzak and Lubbers insanely complied, patting Bone on the ass. “I would do it to Mrs Annan,” Lubbers said, captured on UN TV. Kofi Annan, watching upstairs, fired him. Those were the days.

    I waited and waited but there was no Ban Ki-moon. Finally the official who emerged was Jan Eliasson, Ban's Sweden deputy.  “Yes, Matthew?” he asked me, as if he didn't know what had been done to me.

  “They threw me out,” I said, as Security stepped between us. “Call Jeff Sachs!” I said, hearing my own self as desperate.

 “Jeff Sachs, eh?” Eliasson said, by now at the doors to his car. He was gone.  I retreated to the far end of the lobby and started to write it up. My laptop was running out of power so I plugged it and my smart phone in. This could be the break.

   Just then I saw two UN Security guards approaching me. The older one, in a white shirt, said “You know you shouldn't be here.”

  “I don't know that,” I told him. “The rules say if I'm in the building by 7 pm I can stay working.”

  The white guard shook his head. “You're going to have to leave.”

  “But my stuff is up in the bullpen,” I told him.

  “You have to leave now,” he said.

 “What's your name?” I asked. I fumbled to turn on my phone filming, to try to Periscopethe encounter.

  “Clyde,” he said. “And we're going to move you out.”

  They escorted me through the lobby, like on February 19. But this time I had my phone in my hand. “You know why they're having you do this, right?” I asked him. “I wrote about Ban Ki-moon's connection to the corruption scandal.”

 He didn't answer. I said a few swear words, and the next thing I knew I was out on First Avenue. Again.

  This time I went straight to the park and its metal statue. I knew where to plug in my equipment; Adrian had shown me. I uploaded video and sound, I wrote an article. The UN is hitting new lows, I tweeted. A few people responded. Like a little Burundi.

On “Deep Decarbonization,” Governments Not Involved, At UN Ban Ki-moon Speaks But Takes No Questions, FUNCA Asks Why

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 -- When UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came to “launch,” as the UN puts it, the“Pathways to Deep Decarbonization” report at 11 am on July 8 it was a decidedly one-way launch: Ban spoke but did not take any questions. 

  Why not? 

 Ban's public schedule did not list another appointment until 12:50 pm, with new envoy on Western Sahara Kim Bolduc. So why not?

  Nevertheless the French minister and ambassador on climate negotiations Laurence Tubiana who remained behind thanked Ban. Inner City Press asked Tubiana what relation, if any, there is between the 15 country-specific sections of the report and the governments of those countries.

  Tubiana began that “each country was independent” -- then Jeffrey Sachs, also on the panel, corrected her, Country not government. She agreed, saying that later these reports would spark a dialogue in countries, including with the governments.

  Inner City Press asked about countries -- governments -- effectively censoring 70% of the “Summary for Policymakers” of the most recent IPCC report. Will that process be allowed to continue in connection with the climate negotiations upcoming in France? We'll see.

  On nuclear power, it was Sachs who spoke and not the two representatives of France, global promoter - and miner - for nuclear power.

  The UN as usual set-aside the first question for its UN Censorship Alliance, whose head Pamela Falk asked about a proposal by Henry “Hank” Paulson, whom she identified as a former US Treasury Secretary. Uh, and Goldman Sachs, no? The new Free UN Coalition for Access then thanked the panelist -- Ban Ki-moon as noted had already left -- and asked about governments' censorship.

  At the end Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric delayed the noon briefing for fifteen minutes to allow French ambassador Tubiana to interactive with... France 24, among others. The Free UN Coalition for Access has asked that the policy of when and for whom / which countries UN briefings are delayed or postponed should be transparent and even-handed. Watch this site.