Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s brother, Ban Ki Sang, and nephew, Joo Hyun Bahn, were indicted [press release] Tuesday by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York [official website] on bribery charges in an elaborate international case. The defendants in the case, who include American Malcolm Harris, allegedly bribed a foreign official in a Middle East nation (described only as “Foreign Official-1” and “Country-1”) with USD $2.5 million in a scheme to facilitate the sale of a Vietnamese skyscraper from a South Korean Company to the sovereign wealth fund of the Middle Eastern nation. The sale of Landmark 72 in Hanoi, Vietnam was to take place for a sum of USD $800 million. Ban, a senior executive at South Korea construction company Keangnam, enlisted the help of his son, a real estate broker in New York, to close the deal as a response to debts incurred by Keangnam.

Though he has not been implicated in the scandal, the reports will likely serve as an embarrassment for Ban Ki-moon. Though he has been evasive [NYT report] about his intentions, Ban Ki-moon, whose second term as Secretary-General ended in December, is widely expected [BBC report] to run for president in his native South Korea. The presidency is expected to become vacant following the impeachment [JURIST report] of current president Park Guen-hye in December.