By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN- Review
EDNY / UN GATE, March 23 -- As the Jho Low trial wound down in Brooklyn, with Roger Ng's lawyers trying to keep out of evidence a Goldman Sachs wink-wink policy document with a cartoon from the Monopoly game, "Go Directly To Jail, To Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200 [Million] Dollars," and the cut-out who cut-up Jim Li lost somewhere in Queens, in the jails or even free out on bail, things were quiet for a day on that Eastern Front.
Not so in Ukraine, where footage emerged of a residential square in Mariupol, with half of the apartment buildings on fire and the residents runs through a grassy lot or park with rolling suitcases. Kurt watched it again and again, and then went out to City Hall Park. There, a Bronx Congressman had scheduled a press conference about a bill he was introducing or would introduce, to require all SEC registrants to disclose what business they did in or with Russia.
Citigroup's disclosure would be lengthy, Kurt jotted down. The Federal Reserve had yet to do anything visible about his filing, most pressingly on MUFG whose sell-out the Governors were about to rubber stamp. Sarah Bloom Raskin had been blocked by Manchin, even as he signaled he would vote for Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In that confirmation hearing, Josh Hawley had read out a list of seven cases in which for gruesome photos or videos of children she had sentenced well below the guidelines and the recommendations of probation. This happened all the time in EDNY, though sometimes not. Kurt wondered if a list would be compiled.
For now Kurt was working from another list. It appeared that a list of Larry Ray victim Claudia Drury's prostitution clients had been put into evidence and Kurt published it, with the Twitter caption highlighting some of the same. Crowd sourcers jumped in with information on some of the others. It spread. Then #JohnListGone.
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It was down to the small strikes in the 1MDB trial with the FBI showing receipts for pink diamond necklaces for Najib's wife, and wife transfers to Ng's wife and one of Tim Leissner's many ex's.
But where, Kurt asked without answer from the UN, were the funds stolen from Malaysians and shoveled by Jho Low to UN affiliates? The UN refused to answer and Kurt doubled down, asking the UAE Mission again about their role in the rip-off, and in paying lobbyist Tom Barrack. That would be another trial Kurt would cover on #TheEasternFront.
While the drone footage from Mariupol got more and more surreal, the UN just kept failing. Russia called for a vote on its "humanitarian" draft resolution in the Security Council, but they kept pushing back the time. It was supposed to be in the morning, and Kurt ran out into the fire stairs to cover it. But that got pushed to 3 pm, and then again to 5. The UNTV feed wasn't working, but the UN's propaganda YouTube channel had it. Criticism or questioning of the UN was demonetized on that platform. But Kurt's vlogs still stayed up and so he continued them, each morning in Foley Square.
When finally the meeting began, China voted with Russia instead of abstaining. They were digging it, even as dreamers or useful idiots bragged about bringing them over to their side. And which side was that, with UK chancellor Rishi Sunak dodging about his families financial links to Russia through Infosys?
Brits jumped on that, but Citibank still stayed in Russia, along with MUFG on which the Federal Reserve had done nothing, not even asked the bank a question. It was all smoke and mirrors, the fog of war on #TheEasternFront.
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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