Exclusive
II: Amid
Sanctions, UN
Let N Korea
Take EUR 4M
from Sputnik
Bank,
"Unauthorized
Person"
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Full
Exclusive, Video
UNITED NATIONS,
February 21 –In the face of
North Korea sanctions, the UN
in December 2017 used the
sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank
and Russia's Sputnik Bank to
release EUR 3,974,920.62 into
the country, documents
obtained by Inner City Press
show.
On
February 21, Inner City Press
asked the Dutch chair of the
UN Security Council's 1718
Sanctions commitee about the
exemption. He refused to comment,
saying the issue did not come
up in the meeting he had just
exited. Video here.
But a
letter from Sputnik Bank stated
that "unauthorized person
(I.V. Tonkih) led
negotiations with Korean party
on interbank correspondent
relationship." Photos here.
, more documents in PDF now
published on Patreon, here.
In 2017 then-chairman
of the UN Security Council's
1718 / North Korea sanctions
committee Sebastiano Cardi of
Italy informed Sputnik Bank to
release the nearly EUR 4
million to the Foreign Trade
Bank - the very entity for
dealing with Latvia's ABLV
Bank has been sanctioned by
the United States.
Previously, Cardi by letter
had, according to UN Resient
Coordinator Tapan Mishra,
neglected to "make clear
reference to the need for cash
withdrawal." The Treasurer of
the UN Development Program
Paul Gravanese then asked
Cardi for wider authorization
for FTB to withdraw funds.
This only concerned the third
quarter of 2017 - what has
been done since? The new
chairman declined to say.
Others
say, the UN has fixed nothing,
sweeps everything uner the rug.
Earlier this month when Inner
City Press asked if the
Committee's rulings on request
for exemptions, and the
underlying requests
themselves, are placed on the
Committee's website or
otherwise made public. The
answer was and is no.
Inner City Press will have
more on this exclusive
story. There
are also
violations by
Japanese
companies,
like Bank of
Tokyo
Mitsubishi, as
Inner City
Press has reported.
It is facts
chucked or
thrown, rather
than fact
checked.
***
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