AUSTRALIAN REPORTER EMBROILED IN PAKISTAN FRAUD

 

Four Corners reporter Sally Neighbour, at the center of a storm over her defaming Kevin Curnow, is now embroiled in a Pakistan fraud case involving top US think-tank the Urban Institute.

Already the subject of allegations regarding her biased and personally targeted reporting, Sally Neighbour has now fallen foul of a Pakistan fraudster, Shahid Yusuf from Peshawar, who used her predilection to assassinate the character of Kevin Curnow to further a major fraud being perpetrated on the top US think tank the Urban Institute. An American friend of Yusuf was recently murdered in Peshawar, Yusuf's home town, after various matters came to light.

Neighbour's style of reporting has always been confrontational and there have been many complaints of bias, lack of focus and a scant regard for facts over sensationalism. She remains however a major reporter for Four Corners, an Australian current affairs program notwithstanding calls for her removal.

One of her major personal attacks has been on Kevin Curnow the former coordinator of an Aboriginal corporation in Australia who Neighbour accused of extensive malfeasance in a program aired by Four Corners in 2001. None of her allegations could later be substantiated by police and her reputation has been under a cloud ever since, while she has continued to use her influence over an award committee to give herself accolades and prizes in respect of questionable stories based on sensationalist reporting.

While focusing her sensationalist story on Kevin Curnow, she failed to understand the much more important story relating to the refusal of the liberal government to honor an $18 million land acquisition granted by the Indigenous Land Corporation. Neighbour has admitted to community groups that she is not able to comprehend complicated stories.

The inability of the police to substantiate any of Neighbour's claims with respect to Kevin Curnow has caused Neighbour severe embarrassment and since that time she has focussed a personal vendetta against Kevin Curnow.

This personal vendetta blinded Neighbour's perceptions even further and she failed to comprehend the complex situation in Pakistan leading her to be the unwitting dupe of a Pakistan fraudster Shahid Yusuf.

Yusuf is still running a major court battle in Pakistan attempting to defraud the major US think tank, the Urban Institute, of $5 million alleging that the institute stole the copyright of Yusuf's financial management software. Even Yusuf openly admits that the court case is fraudulent but he expects to be paid out because he believes he has control of the courts and the Urban Institute will settle rather than fight in public. Curnow lead the Urban Institute's operations in Pakistan and Yusuf contacted Neighbour through intermediaries and arranged for Neighbour to run follow-up pieces on Kevin Curnow in the Australian press so that he could use them to force a settlement in Pakistan.

Neighbour obliged and Yusuf immediately used her reports in attempts to secure his fraudulent demands for $5 million. Rather than allow Yusuf's frauds to succeed because of Neighbour's vendetta, Curnow left his post. Kevin Curnow was also advised by security experts that given the unstable personality of Yusuf that Curnow should leave Pakistan because if Yusuf's fraud failed, Yusuf would seek immediate vengeance by having Kevin Curnow and other Urban Institute staff assassinated.

The project that Kevin Curnow lead was dependant on his particular skills to implement and after his departure, has commenced to fail. Informed sources are livid at Neighbour's lack of competence and professionalism as Kevin Curnow was critical to the success of the implementation of major governance reforms in Pakistan, saying 'People do make mistakes, but after 30 years, and no other police action, why is this woman engaging in this ludicrous attack on an honorable man?'

The Urban Institute is continuing to fight Yusuf, but cannot replace Kevin Curnow with quality staff as not only are there very few people with his skills, there are even less people who will work in Pakistan's dangerous environment.

Other press reports are circulating on the impact of Neighbour’s action, some even calling for her to be excluded from the region at this time to ensure she does no further damage. Four Corners has not responded to calls to remove Neighbour from her position.

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/04/dc-nonprofit-accuses-pakistani-company-of-trade-libel.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/four-corners-19-03-2001-catch-me-if-you-can-lies-exposed

http://gmartingates.newsvine.mobi/_news/2009/05/06/2781121-sally-neighbour-four-corners-well-past-the-use-by-date

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/australian-reporter-embroiled-pakistan-fraud

http://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2009/04/dc-nonprofit-accuses-pakistani-company-of-trade-libel.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/australian-reporter-face-us-court-over-trade-libel