SeekNuShallFind ago

Update Dec 5th 2018 from DOJ

Former Head of Organization Backed by Chinese Energy Conglomerate Convicted of International Bribery, Money Laundering Offenses Schemed to Bribe the President of Chad, President and Foreign Minister of Uganda A federal jury in New York City today convicted the head of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) based in Hong Kong and Virginia on seven counts for his participation in a multi-year, multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for a Chinese oil and gas company, announced Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman of the Southern District of New York.

Chi Ping Patrick Ho, aka “Patrick C.P. Ho,” aka “He Zhiping,” 69, of Hong Kong, China, was found guilty today after a one-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska in the Southern District of New York of one count of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), four counts of violating the FCPA, one count of conspiring to commit international money laundering and one count of committing international money laundering. Ho is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge Preska on March 14, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

SeekNuShallFind ago

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-12/the-secretive-china-energy-giant-that-faces-scrutiny-quicktake

What is CEFC? When it agreed to buy a $9 billion stake in Russia’s Rosneft PJSC in September, CEFC said it was China’s largest private oil and gas company, with 50,000 employees and revenue of more than $40 billion. Since its founding in 2002, it has bought up stakes in sectors ranging from oil and petrochemical processing to financial services, apparel and even a soccer team in the Czech Republic. Its oil-trading portfolio includes a 4 percent stake in Abu Dhabi’s largest oil concession, awarded last year for an $888 million signing bonus, and a five-year supply deal with Rosneft.

How did CEFC win the Rosneft deal? It agreed to purchase the 14.16 percent stake from a joint venture of Glencore Plc and Qatar Investment Authority, which had acquired their shares only about nine months earlier. The acquisition is to be funded by a loan from Russia’s VTB Bank PJSC. CEFC was an unorthodox buyer. In the past, China has relied on state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. China Petrochemical Corp., known as Sinopec, or Cnooc Ltd. to buy overseas assets.

SeekNuShallFind ago

LATEST REPORT

UN Bribery Case 3300 Emails For Nov 26 Trial Still No UN Audit Guterres

InnerCity Press Published on 22 Oct 2018 By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 – 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.

On October 22, the new trial date was set for November 26. In a hearing Inner City Press coverage - 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.

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 times as 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?

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.” (Gov’t Br. at 12.) Specifically, the government proffers evidence that Dr. Cheikh Gadio purported to pass to Dr. Ho a request from President Déby that CEFC Energy intervene with the Chinese government to cause it to provide arms to Déby so that he could fight Boko Haram. (Id. at 12-13.) It also proffers evidence that Dr. Ho emailed with “an individual” in March and April 2015 about selling arms to South Sudan, Qatar, and Libya."

On October 9 the prosecution requested that the trial begin later than the scheduled November 5, writing to Judge Loretta A. Preska among other things that "this past Friday, October 5, 2018, the defendant submitted a classified notice pursuant to Section 5 of the Classified Information Procedures Act (“CIPA”).

The defendant could have filed such notice a number of weeks ago, but waited until the very last day on which such a filing would be deemed timely under CIPA. The defendant also did not notify the Government that he intended to submit such a notice until the Court directed the parties to confer during last week’s conference.

The Government now has to draft, have approved for submission, and submit a classified response in opposition, in which it intends to request a hearing concerning the use, relevance, and admissibility of classified information that would otherwise be made public by the defense during the trial, and expects, assuming appropriate authorization is provided, to request that the hearing be held in camera."