Designer pleads guilty in scam tied to Ban’s kin

New York, June 21: A New York fashion designer who has called himself the “curator of cool” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from a bribery case that involves a brother and nephew of former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Kimoon.

Self-described arts and fashion consultant and blogger Malcolm Harris, 53, entered his plea to money laundering and wire fraud before US district Judge Edgardo Ramos in federalcourt in Manhattan, US prosecutors said.

Harris is scheduled to be sentenced on September 27. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. Harris was charged in January with agreeing to act as amiddleman in an international bribery scheme involving a potential $800 million international real estate deal, and then running off with his co-conspirators’ money. Also charged were Ban Ki-moon’s brother Ban Ki-sang, who was an executive at South Korean construction firm Keangnam Enterprises Ltd, and Ban Ki-sang’s son Joo Hyun “Dennis” Bahn, a real estate broker.

According to an indictment filed in New York federal court, Ban Ki-sang arranged Keangnam to hire his son to broker financing of the Landmark 72 building complex in Hanoi, whichcost over $1 billion to construct, to help the company deal witha liquidity crisis. In March 2013, Bahn, through an acquaintance, met Harris, who has counted Madonna among his famous friends. Harris told Bahn that he could help get a deal via his connections, which he said included members of a Middle Easternroyal family, and offered to bribe an official to arrange the Landmark 72’s sale to a sovereign wealth fund, according toprosecutors.

In April 2014, both Bahn and Ban Ki-sang had agreed to pay an upfront $500,000 bribe and another $2 million bribe upon the sale’s closing to the official.