In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon

UN GATE NOW SDNY, August 9 – Vivian Wang, the money woman for convicted UN briber Ng Lap Seng's South South News, was sentenced to time served on June 26 by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge George B. Daniels, who did not preside over the trial of Ng Lap Seng.

 Now on August 9, Ng Lap Seng's long shot appeal of his conviction was shot down by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. From the majority decision, this: "Insofar as the district court nevertheless charged an 'official act' quid pro quo for the § 666 crimes, that error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the jury, having found Ng guilty under the higher McDonnell official act standard, would certainly have found him guilty under a proper instruction omitting that unnecessary standard." That was District Judge Broderick, whose low ceiling-ed courtroom Inner City Press now covers nearly daily, both because banned from the UN for uncovering its corruption and more and more interested in the workings of his Federal court.

 And here, in full, is the concurring decision of Circuit Judge Richard J. Sullivan, who is also still overseeing criminal cases and even a trial, by designation: "18-1725-cr United States v. Ng Lap Seng SULLIVAN, Circuit Judge, concurring: I fully agree with the majority that the official acts requirement set forth in McDonnell v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2355 (2016), does not apply to 18 U.S.C. § 666 or the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd‐2, 78dd‐3.  I likewise agree that the district court erred by giving (what turned out to be) an unnecessary McDonnell instruction.  However, that error is clearly harmless, for the reasons set forth in the majority opinion. Having reached this conclusion, I see no need to engage in an alternative holding that essentially hypothesizes what we would have concluded in the event that McDonnell did apply to § 666.  To my mind, this analysis obscures what is otherwise a clear holding, and since “[i]t has long been [the] considered practice [of Article III courts] not to decide abstract, hypothetical or contingent questions,” Ala. State Fed’n of Labor, Local Union No. 103, United Bhd. of Carpenters & Joiners of Am. v. McAdory, 325 U.S. 450, 461 (1945), I see no reason to engage in an unnecessary and purely academic McDonnell analysis. Accordingly, I decline to join in the majority’s alternative McDonnell holding.  In all other respects, I wholly concur in the majority’s excellent opinion." We'll have more on all this.

   Back in June, Wang's Goodwin Procter lawyer Derek A. Cohen heavily redacted his sentencing submission; afterward when Inner City Press asked him about it he said "it speak for itself." But what does it say, behind the redactions?

  Inner City Press asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel C. Richenthal who beyond Ng Lap Seng Ms. Wang cooperated against. Richenthal said he couldn't comment on that. But corruption has continued at the UN. The UN Secretariat staff implicated in the Ng Lap Seng case, and the Patrick Ho case since, have not been prosecuted.

  This laxity can be contrasted with another SDNY proceeding a mere hour later, in which Judge P. Kevin Castel looked behind the U.S. Attorney's Office's 5k1.1 cooperation letters and imposed jail time on four siblings, the Seggermans, who evaded taxes. Vivi Wang help bribe the UN, and she got time served. The UN continues corrupt. We'll have a longer, separate description of the sentencing proceeding and case.

Three years after Dominican UN diplomat and UNCA donor Francis Lorenzo pled guilty to UN bribery, on 7 March 2019 Inner City Press which has been thrown out of the UN for asking SG Antonio Guterres about (his) corruption spotted Lorenzo directly in front of the UN on 46th Street. Politely it asked him, When will you be sentenced? Rather than answer, Lorenzo twice repeated, I'm just waiting for someone, then sped away, south to 45th Street, west toward Second Avenue and into a taxi. Periscope video here.

  Now in late June 2019 Julia Vivi Wang who pled guilty in the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery scheme on April 4, 2018 is set to be sentenced. But her sentencing submission by the white shoe law firm of Goodwin Proctor is substantially redacted (Inner City Press on June 25 put the letter online for free download as an attachment on Patreon, here, and now on Scribed, here.

   The filing implied that her husband, UN briber Forest Cao, was murdered, saying amid the redactions that "Forest was 57 years old and had no known health conditions. No autopsy was performed." It also says, as to UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe, that while awaiting trial on UN bribery charges "his death was reported as the result of a 'weightlifting accident' after a barbell apparently crushed his throat."

Links in the redacted sentencing submission doesn't work; all of pages 26 to 37 of the exhibits to the letter are redacted, possibly including letters of support from the increasingly corrupt UN of Antonio Guterres, whose spokesman Stephane Dujarric dodged Inner City Press' questions about Vivian Wang, here, before Dujarric had Inner City Press evicted and now banned from the UN for 358+ days.  This cover up about UN bribery is totally unacceptable. We'll have more on this.

 The U.S. Attorney's Office has once again pushed back Lorenzo's sentencing, from June 14 into September. A cynic might say it is hoped the public will forget, as for example a pharmacist who pled guilty to stealing $7 million seems to be hoping, pushing his sentencing back (though still less than Lorenzo). The U.S. Attorney on May 21 asked to push back the sentencing of Heidi Hong Piao for six months. We'll have more on this - and on this: "       ORDER GRANTING NON-PARTIES FAIRFAX MEDIA LTD. AND AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION'S MOTION TO RECEIVE CERTAIN GRAND JURY MATERIALS: as to John W. Ashe, Francis Lorenzo, Ng Lap Seng, Jeff C. Yin, Shiwei Yan, Heidi Hong Piao. WHEREAS on March 1, 2019, non-party news organizations Fairfax Media Limited and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (together, the "News Organizations") filed a letter motion (Doc. No. 898) requesting an order pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)(3)(E)(i) authorizing the Government to provide them with certain grand jury materials evidencing a $200,000 wire transfer payment allegedly made by Dr. Chau Chak Wing or his company to the late former President of the General Assembly of the United Nations John W. Ashe, as set forth in Paragraph 49 (including subpart (f)) of the Complaint in this action (Doc. No. 1); WHEREAS, on March 4, 2019, the Court entered an order requiring any objections to the News Organizations' request to be submitted to the Court no later than March 25, 2019 (Doc. No. 899); WHEREAS, on March 22, 2019, the Government responded to the News Organizations' letter motion indicating that it does not object to a finding that the News Organizations have met their burden under Rule 6(e)(3)(E)(i) with respect to the requested records (Doc. No. 900); WHEREAS no other responses or objections to disclosure of the requested materials were lodged with the Court; and WHEREAS, on March 29, 2019, the Court entered an Order (Doc. No. 901) finding that the News Organizations have met their burden under Rule 6(e)(3)(E)(i) with respect to the requested records, and requiring the Government and the News Organizations to confer regarding a proposed order governing the disclosure of the requested records, and to jointly submit a proposed order regarding the same by April 8, 2019; IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that, without objection by the Government, and after considering the facts and circumstances of this matter, the Government shall, by no later than April 22, 2019, provide to the News Organizations the following documents to the extent obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York via grand jury subpoena in the investigation of this matter: 1. Copies of bank statements and wire transfer records from financial institutions evidencing the $200,000 wire payment allegedly made by Dr. Chau Chak Wing or his company to John W. Ashe as set forth in Paragraph 49 of the Complaint, which statements and records may be redacted to the extent they contain information not pertinent to this payment; and 2. Copies of written statement(s) the Government received from any financial institution that produced such records attesting to the authenticity of those records as documents kept or maintained by the financial institution in the ordinary course of its business, which statements may be redacted to the extent they contain information not pertinent to this payment. SO ORDERED: (Signed by Judge Vernon S. Broderick on 4/9/2019)."

  As to Lorenzo and his running away in March, the irony is, he has argued to SDNY Judge Broderick that his leg is in so much pain he had to have his ankle GPS bracelet, like the one imposed for principled protest rather than corruption on Patricia Okoumou, removed. But on March 7 Lorenza was speeding along, unlike the wheels of justice for him. Inner City Press has multiply been informed that this felon is still working with the Dominican Mission and entering the UN. On March 8, Inner City Press in writing asked UNSG Antonio Guterres, his Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed who has been spotted with Lorenzo, Alison Smale and Spokesman Stephane Dujarric: "March 8-2: On UN corruption and bribery, yesterday evening Inner City Press saw in front of the UN and questioned Francis Lorenzo, who pleaded guilty to UN bribery. Please immediately state the last time convicted UN bribery felon Francis Lorenzo entered the UN (same for former El Salvador Ambassador Carlos Garcia, who it was shown facilitied Lorenzo's illegal acts, and for Patrick Ho), and state whether Lorenzo is affiliated in any way to the Dominican Republic mission to the UN." More than a day later, no answer at all, despite promises of answers by Smale and Dujarric. To this low has the UN fallen under Guterres. Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng, convicted a year ago of bribing the UN, spent even more money on lawyers back on July 16, and on multiple doctors in the week before, to successfully win another day of freedom from US Judge Vernon S. Broderick. Post-hearing first video report here, from Inner City Press then and still now banned from the UN as it alone in the UN press corps pursues the Ng Lap Seng and now Patrick Ho / CEFC UN bribery cases. On Ng Lap Seng, who did belatedly turn himself in to begin serving his sentence, there is a development: he has unsurprisingly asked the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently turned down Patrick Ho's bid to get out on bail, to void his conviction. The argument, which today's UN of Secretary General Antonio Guterres has shown it is in support of, is that U.S. law, the FCPF, was "misapplied"  to cover an intergovernmental organization like the UN. Guterres clearly believes that such US laws as those against police brutality, or protecting freedom of the press, don't apply in the UN: witness his Security roughing up Inner City Press on June 22 and more violently on July 3 (video here), and his and ex-NYT Alison Smale's ban on Inner City Press for 44 days since, for a review in which Inner City Press has no right to be heard. Will "the UN is lawless" argument work for Ng Lap Seng? Guterres, who has yet to even order a UN audit of who else Patrick Ho bribed in the UN beyond the President of the General Assembly Sam Kutesa, certainly hopes so. Watch this site. Back on July 16 in a four hour proceeding witnessed to the end by Inner City Press and only one other media, Ng's lawyer Mr Tai H. Park and his Doctor Stephen Pan who is the son in law of one of his other lawyers Hugh Mo managed to parade a series of MRIs and other tests taken over the past weekend as evidence that Ng is anxious and needs more time. On July 9 Ng had an elective stent procedure, and was released after eight hours. Then he went to NYU Langone, and was diagnosed with an inner ear issue. But an MRI taken found some "silent" landings on his brain, and another discovered a spine condition that, it later emerged, had been found in 2012. There was a Doctor "Adubato" who, it was said, initially signed a letter that Ng would need two weeks then recanted it, seemingly without repercussions. No one else from the UN was there, to see this travesty of one of their bribers. What Ng actually did barely came up during the presentations by Janis M .Echenberg and Daniel C. Richenthal: their prosecution, as it turned out, spend at least $10,000 in taxpayer money for a Colombia cardiologist Doctor Schneller to come out with such clunkers as the only advice he gives his stent patients is to not go to "Third World countries." After four hours of hypochondria of a type never entertained from less affluent defendants, Broderick delivered yet another day of freedom to Ng. He was supposed to be in jail, at latest, on July 10. Then July 17. Now it's Wednesday July 17 at noon, in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Who knows? Watch this site. Eight months after Ng's conviction, on March 30 the prosecution asked for a jail term of over six years and a $2 million fine. On May 11 Ng was sentenced to four years in jail, and ironically to pay the legal fees of the UN, which even under the prosecutors' press release he corrupted. At the UN, Carlos Garcia who facilitated Ng's bribes to Francis Lorenzo's family in the Dominican Republic was at the General Assembly stakeout at this month as exclusively reported by Inner City Press. Since then the UN ousted Inner City Press on June 22 from covering a speech by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and on July 3 from covering a meeting on its $6.7 billion budgets, since when Guterres has banned Inner City Press. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. Now on July 16, Ng is still no in jail: he is arguing that pains in his back and elsewhere mean he should get another delay. The New York Times, which unlike Fox News, the (UK) Independent and others has not yet reported a word on the UN's physical ouster and banning of the investigative Press despite earlier coverage, amazingly ran a long piece about Ng's case without once mentioning that is it UN bribery he is convicted of. We'll have more on this. After an oral argument on June 26 in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Ng's bid to remain even longer in his apartment on 47th Street was denied. “It is hereby ordered that appellant’s motion is DENIED, because he has failed to show that the district court clearly erred in its risk of flight determination,” the court’s order sys, and “It is further ordered that the appeal is expedited.” Ng's lawyer Paul Clement of Kirkland & Ellis claims that the UN is not the kind of "organization" Congress was talking about in the law prohibiting bribery connected to organizations that receive federal funds. So the UN can be bribed at will? The UN has no law against it, and current SG Guterres does not even order an audit of China Energy Fund Committee, the second UN bribery case which seems linked to the first - CEFC invited John Ashe to China as well. We'll have more on this.

And this: in the underlying Ng Lap Seng indictment there was a Co-Conspirator 3 who also bribed UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe. This CC-3 has now been identified as Chau Chak Wing by Australian MP Andrew Hastie, chairman of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. Hastie recently met with US authorities about espionage and foreign interference legislation, and said it was during those discussions he confirmed the "long-suspected identity of CC-3" as Dr Chau."The same man who co-conspired to bribe the United Nations president of the General Assembly, John Ashe," Hastie said in a speech in the Australian Parliament’s Federation Chamber. On May 22, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you, in… in what was called the John Ashe case, a businessman, Mr. Chau Chak Wing has been identified as Co-conspirator 3 in… that was in the indictment.  And it's caused quite a furore in Australia, but I guess my question is, given that the UN did, in that case, unlike the Patrick Ho case, conduct an audit, did the UN know the identity of Co-conspirator 3?  And what does it show you now, given… given Mr. Chau Chak Wang's other… Wing's other… other roles?  What does it mean for the UN that he, according to intelligence sources and now, as stated in the Australian Parliament, paid a $200,000 bribe to a then-sitting President of the General Assembly?

Spokesman:  I think we've commented on the case, and we have cooperated fully with the Federal host authorities here on the conclusion of the case.

Inner City Press:  But it doesn't… so this doesn't change the ca… the idea that this is a sitting… this is a person that's actually tied directly to the Chinese Communist Party?

Spokesman:  I've said… this is what I've had to say.

Inner City Press:  It doesn't change…

Spokesman:  "This is what I've had to say.  Thank you." On May 11 Ng was sentenced to four years in jail, and ironically to pay the legal fees of the UN, which even under the prosecutors' press release he corrupted? The UN, which evicted and still restricts Inner City Press for pursuing the extend of Ng's bribery in the UN, including his payments through South South News to the UN Correspondents Association, gave its UN Censorship Alliance scribes a statement that In a statement after the verdict, the UN said it “had cooperated extensively to facilitate the proper administration of justice in this case, by disclosing thousands of documents and waiving the immunity of officials to allow them to testify at trial." This statement, and the UNCA scribes, ignore that the UN is already embroiled in another bribery scandal, that of Patrick Ho and CEFC. Nothing has been reformed; Secretary General Antonio Guterress hasn't even ordered an audit. On May 14, Inner City Press asked Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: On Friday, Ng Lap Seng of South-South News and other fame was sentenced to 48 months in prison for what’s described as bribery of officials at the UN.  I did see that somehow part of the settlement was that the UN’s legal fees would be paid.  So, I had two questions.  Number one, how much are those legal fees?  Number two, in the second what’s described as a UN bribery case involving Patrick Ho and the China Energy Fund Committee (CEFC), has the UN as of yet rung up any… any legal fees?  And has there as yet been any audit ordered as was audit… ordered in the case of Ng Lap Seng and South-South News? And, if not, why not?

Spokesman:  Regarding the second question, that’s an ongoing case, and we’ll have more details as it proceeds.  Regarding the first, the United Nations had cooperated extensively to facilitate the proper administration of justice in the Ng Lap Seng case by disclosing thousands of documents and waiving the immunity of officials to allow them to testify at trial.  In this regard, the organisation notes the court’s award of $302,000 in restitution to be paid to the United Nations as a victim of these crimes.  Nizar?

Inner City Press: I have a follow-up question… One of the people that testified was… was the person that worked in DGACM [Department of General Assembly and Conference Management] and actually changed the GA resolution to put in the name of Sun Kiang Ip foundation as the builder of the… the… the centre in Macau.  Was anything ever done on that?  I think, if you follow the case, you know that that took place.  Yes, bribes were paid allegedly and now convictedly [sic] to… to John Ashe and Francis Lorenzo, but a… a UNGA [United Nations General Assembly] document, once it was passed, was amended by DGACM.  Who did that?  And… and… and are they being held accountable?

Spokesman:  The person who testified in this case has retired from the United Nations." As Inner City Press has previously exclusively reported, that is Ion Botnaru. So, no accountability? And the UN is taking $302,000 in "restitution" while it has paid nothing in restitution for killing 10,000 people with cholera in Haiti? We'll have more on this.  Lorenzo - still at liberty and in front of the UN on 7 March 2019...

***

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2015 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for