UN corruption | Humanitarian worker charged in bribery scheme

Ng, who pleaded not guilty, is under 24-hour security, confined to a Manhattan apartment

A humanitarian organization officer was charged with money laundering in a United Nations bribery case that has ensnared two diplomats and Macau real estate mogul Ng Lap Seng, according to court papers unsealed last week.
Julia Vivi Wang, also known as Vivian Wang, is accused of paying USD500,000 in exchange for diplomatic positions for her late husband and another businessman and laundering the money through the sustainable development organization where she was an officer. Prosecutors say the bribe was solicited by John Ashe, a former General Assembly president and U.N. ambassador for Antigua and Barbuda, and Francis Lorenzo, deputy ambassador for the Dominican Republic.
Wang made an initial court appearance at federal court in Manhattan Friday afternoon. Messages left for her attorneys and a call to her nonprofit were not immediately returned.
Federal officials say Wang worked at one nonprofit and then created a second that aimed to fund economic development in developing countries. She used bank accounts from the second organization to launder money from China through the U.S. and to an account in Trinidad, authorities said. According to court papers, Wang and her husband wanted an official diplomatic position because “they believed that such a position would permit them to make money.”
After her husband died, she used the development fund to transfer $200,000 to a California company to pay for her husband’s cemetery plot, authorities said.
Lorenzo, who pleaded guilty last week and agreed to cooperate against the other officials charged in the case, helped facilitate the transfers, according to court papers.
Federal prosecutors have said Ashe turned the world body into a “platform for profit” by accepting over $1 million in bribes from Ng Lap Seng and other businesspeople to pave the way for lucrative investments. Some of the bribes were paid to gain Ashe’s support for the construction of a U.N.-
sponsored conference center that Ng hoped to build in his hometown of Macau, prosecutors said.
Ashe, of Dobbs Ferry, New York, and Ng have each pleaded not guilty and are free on bail. Ng is under 24-hour security, confined to a Manhattan apartment.
Ashe served in the largely ceremonial post as head of the 193-nation assembly from September 2013 to September 2014. MDT/AP