Inside the corruption scandal that tarnished the UN

About this episode

The episode explores a $60 million corruption scandal at the United Nations involving Vitaly Vanshelboim and discusses the implications for oversight within the organization.

This week, we take you inside a Devex exclusive: the $60 million fiasco at the United Nations, a complex story with an equally complex set of characters, including Vitaly Vanshelboim, whose rise and fall left a black mark on a key U.N. agency. Once revered as a financial wizard, Vanshelboim was the man credited with pulling UNOPS back from the brink of bankruptcy. However, as our investigation reveals, behind the diplomatic prestige and profits lay a shadow world of secret side deals, luxury cars, and a $60 million trail of broken promises. Now, as the former U.N. assistant secretary-general faces a reckoning from a Spanish prison cell, we discuss the lingering question: For a system that prides itself on rigorous oversight, is this incident a one-off or emblematic of something deeper? To dig into this story and others, Senior Reporter Adva Saldinger sits down with Managing Editor Anna Gawel and Senior Global Reporter Colum Lynch for the latest episode of our weekly podcast series. Request an invitation to attend Devex Impact House @ WHA in Geneva: https://pages.devex.com/devex-at-wha-79.html

People in this episode

Host: Adva Saldinger

Guests: Anna Gawel, Colum Lynch

Topics covered

• corruption
• United Nations
• financial scandal
• investigation
• oversight
• UNOPS
• accountability

Keywords

• corruption scandal
• UNOPS
• Vitaly Vanshelboim
• financial oversight
• Devex
• investigation
• accountability
• United Nations
• luxury cars
• broken promises

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: United Nations, UNOPS

Places: Spain, Geneva

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