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By Matthew Russell Lee, CEFC Video, Scope
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 15 – Patrick Ho was sentenced to 36 months in jail on March 25 for UN bribery and having "sold weapons enthusiastically," along with a $400,000 fine imposed by U.S. District Court for the Soutern District of New York Judge Loretta Preska. During his trial, covered every day by Inner City Press which was and is banned from entering the UN amid its reporting linking current UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the scandal through the Gulbenkian Foundation from his he received payments undisclosed on his public financial form covering 2016, an audio clip was played for the jury. In it Ho discusses offering bribes to now deceased UN President of the General Assembly John Ashe, with Sheri Yan.
Yan pled guilty to bribing Ashe as part of the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery trial, which Inner City Press asked covered daily before it was roughed up and banned from the UN by Guterres. But now Yan in a prison novel and craven revisionist profile by Kirsty Needham, China correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, is claiming: "A related UN bribery investigation involving Ashe netted another conviction in March, with former Hong Kong politician Patrick Ho sentenced to three years. Yan says she met Ho at a conference in Hong Kong she attended as chief executive of Ashe’s Global Sustainability Foundation. They later attended a public dinner in New York. They have “politely” spoken a few times. “I did meet him – that is all. "To say I am working with him to influence the UN is a very wrong statement.'" Apparently The Age has not heard the extended audio of Yan and Ho discussing quid pro quo bribery of Ashe. SMH - shaking my head. We'll have more on this.
Back on March 25, Inner City Press asked Patrick Ho's defense lawyer Edward Y. Kim if he will appeal. We are considering our options, Kim said. Post-sentencing Periscope video here.
Inner City Press immediately emailed a question to the UN and Guterres and his spokesmen on March 25, and on March 26, and on March 27, this: "March 27-3: On UN bribery, on March 25 Patrick Ho of the China Energy Fund Committee was sentenced to 36 months in prison and a $400,000 fine for his UN bribery; in today's proceeding Ho was described as using a UN NGO to "sell weapons enthusiastically." What now is SG Antonio Guterres' comment and action? Will he now begin an audit of CEFC in the UN? What is the SG's comment and response to this 22 minute documentary about Patrick Ho and CEFC's bribes through the UN including Mr. Guterres' refusal to answer Inner City Press' question on it on 5 December 2018 at Min 17. Again, the sentencing memorandum includes quotes from his e-mails regarding aiming to violate sanctions and deal in arms not only to Chad but also South Sudan, Libya & Qatar. What is the SG's comment and action? Again, why has no audit even been begun of CEFC, at least like the one Mr. Guterres' predecessor did of Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Foundation? Why did Mr Guterres omit payments from Gulbenkian Foundation, which sought to sell its oil company Partex to CEFC China Energy, from his public financial disclosure covering 2016? Where are the more recent public financial disclosures - has Mr. Guterres ended that program? Why?"
On March 28 this came in from the UN and we publish it in full: "On your question March 27-3, we can say that the Organization takes note of the sentencing of Mr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho to 36 months’ imprisonment and a US$400,000 fine. The UN has cooperated extensively in this matter by making thousands of pages of documents available and providing access to its personnel." What about an audit? Why hasn't Guterres disclosed his own financial links? We'll have more on this, and on his and the UN's censorship.
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