The Borneo Post

US wants S. Korea to arrest Ban Ki-moon’s brother

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NEW YORK: US government prosecutor­s have asked South Korea to arrest a brother of former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon indicted in New York on charges of bribery, an official confirmed Friday.

An indictment unsealed on January 10 accuses Ban Ki Sang, a senior executive in a South Korean constructi­on company, and his son Joo Hyun Bahn, a Manhattan real estate broker, over the attempted 800 million sale of a building in Hanoi.

During a court hearing in a federal court in New York on Friday, an assistant US attorney said a request had been made for the arrest of Ban.

The suspect, who was an executive at Keangnam Enterprise­s, a South Korean constructi­on company, has not yet been arrested, the prosecutor told the court.

Ban Ki-moon stepped down from the helm of the United Nations on January 1, replaced by former Portuguese prime minister Antonio Guterres. Bahn is the former UN chief’s nephew.

Both relatives are charged with corruption, money laundering and conspiracy.

US prosecutor­s allege that the internatio­nal bribery conspiracy took place between March 2013 and May 2015 in relation to the attempted sale of a commercial and residentia­l complex in Hanoi, built and owned by Keangnam.

The plot focused on an attempt to get an official from an undisclose­d Middle Eastern kingdom to purchase the property.

The father and son agreed to pay an initial bribe of 500,000, wired to an account in New York from South Korea in April 2014, followed by a payment of 2 million upon completion of the sale, prosecutor­s said.

US citizen Malcolm Harris, accused of masqueradi­ng as a go-between and also indicted, pocketed the bribe which he frittered away on personal luxuries, US prosecutor­s say.

The sale never went through, ultimately forcing Keangnam to enter court receiversh­ip in South Korea due to a growing liquidity crisis.

 ??  ?? NEW GUY ON THE BLOCK: DID Corporatio­n CEO Howard Cheung poses with a prototype 12-inch action figure of Donald Trump, which will be available in March, in Hong Kong. — Reuters photo
NEW GUY ON THE BLOCK: DID Corporatio­n CEO Howard Cheung poses with a prototype 12-inch action figure of Donald Trump, which will be available in March, in Hong Kong. — Reuters photo

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