{"id":1276,"date":"2012-01-16T01:37:29","date_gmt":"2012-01-16T01:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ingeta.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2012-01-16T01:37:29","modified_gmt":"2012-01-16T01:37:29","slug":"u-n-report-names-former-nba-player-in-gold-smuggling-deal-involving-jet-with-texas-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/u-n-report-names-former-nba-player-in-gold-smuggling-deal-involving-jet-with-texas-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N. report names former NBA player in gold-smuggling deal involving jet with Texas ties"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>By JASON TRAHAN – jtrahan@dallasnews.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Published: 14 January 2012 10:31 PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0U.N. investigators say that the alleged financiers behind a deal to smuggle $20 million in gold out of the Congo last year on a North Texas Gulfstream jet included former NBA<\/a> star Dikembe Mutombo<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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U.N. report: <\/strong> Last month, the United Nations<\/a> released a report detailing how Houston oil tycoon Kase Lawal, who sits on one of President Barack Obama\u2019s trade committees, and Mutombo, formerly of the Houston Rockets<\/a>, tapped Houston diamond merchant Edward \u201cCarlos\u201d St. Mary to take a team to the Congo to retrieve the gold. The plane was detained for weeks until it was released by Congolese authorities.<\/p>\n

An account of the botched transaction is part of a wider U.N. investigation of illegal minerals smuggling from vast mines controlled by warlords accused of committing mass rape and other humanitarian atrocities. Lawal, through lawyers, told U.N. investigators that he did nothing wrong. Mutombo did not respond to multiple messages from The Dallas Morning News<\/em>. St. Mary has been cooperating with authorities, though no charges have been filed against anyone.<\/p>\n

Southlake<\/a> connection: <\/strong>The Gulfstream V jet that was detained in Africa belongs to a subsidiary of Southlake businessman David Disiere. Disiere\u2019s company leased the multimillion-dollar jet to a Lawal subsidiary. Disiere\u2019s spokesman has said that he had no involvement in, or knowledge of, the Congo trip. The U.N. report does not dispute that.<\/p>\n

Court date in Dallas: <\/strong>Disiere\u2019s company alleges in a Dallas lawsuit that Lawal\u2019s group violated the lease agreement by using the $40 million aircraft for the ill-fated trip. A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday before state District Judge Dale Tillery in downtown Dallas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JASON TRAHAN – jtrahan@dallasnews.com Published: 14 January 2012 10:31 PM \u00a0U.N. investigators say that the alleged financiers behind a deal to smuggle $20 million in gold out of the Congo last year on a North Texas Gulfstream jet included former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo. U.N. report: Last month, the United Nations released a report […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[142,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ce-que-disent-les-medias","category-news-alertes"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/congolobilelo.com\/IN\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}