«Ban was greatly surprised by the news, which he learned from the media. He knows nothing about it, » Ban’s spokesman, Lee Do-woon, said.
The former UN chief plans to travel through South Korea to speak to the public until late January as part of his anticipated presidential bid, the spokesman added.
«What [Ban] needs to do is draw a line and say he has nothing to do with [the alleged improprieties],” Kim Sang-jin, professor of political science at Konkuk University, told Reuters. “He needs to be convincing in his explanation, otherwise people will start doubting him. »
«If he mishandles this, people will start thinking that he is too weak or isn’t as clean as they thought he was,» Kim added.
The 39-page indictment, unveiled at a Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday, charges Manhattan real estate broker Joo Hyun ‘Dennis’ Bahn – Ban’s nephew – and his father Ban Ki-sang, a senior executive in Keangnam Enterprises Co. Ltd, a South Korean construction company.
According to US prosecutors, the international bribery scheme took place between March 2013 and May 2015, and involved the attempted sale of a commercial and residential complex owned by Keangnam Enterprises in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi.
The plot revolved around a bid to get an official from an undisclosed Middle Eastern country to acquire the lucrative property using a sovereign wealth fund. It also allegedly included an attempt to contact that undisclosed state’s leader while he was in New York City for the annual UN General Assembly, according to AFP.
Among those charged is also US businessman Malcolm Harris, who reportedly presented himself as an agent of the Middle Eastern official.
