Briefs | Ex-assistant to Ng Lap Seng gets 7 months in prison

The former assistant to a Macau billionaire has been sentenced to seven months in prison on a tax charge stemming from a United Nations bribery case. Jeff C. Yin was sentenced Wednesday by Manhattan federal Judge Vernon Broderick. Prosecutors said Yin failed to pay taxes on his USD54,000 salary for two years. He apologized at sentencing. Yin was chief assistant to Ng Lap Seng when both were arrested in September 2015. Ng is awaiting sentencing after his conviction for paying bribes to U.N. officials. Yin’s attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Sabrina Schroff, urged the judge to let Yin serve the sentence at a halfway house rather than a prison. Broderick asked both sides to submit arguments and said he’ll rule later on the request.

Red Cross donations unaffected by scandal

Macau Red Cross claims that donations to the association were not affected by global scandals concerning Red Cross. Chairman of the Central Committee of Macau Red Cross, Eddie Wong, said that these scandals should not affect other organizations and that Macau residents are more concerned about whether the donations have been put to good use. According to Wong, Macau Red Cross clearly reports to the public and the Macau government how it uses donations.

TSI revokes LRT depot contract

The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has revoked the contract granted to China Construction Engineering (Macau) Co. to build  the superstructure project of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) depot. Following the announcement of the results of the public tender, bidder China Road and Bridge Corporation appealed the decision to grant the MOP1.07 billion contract. TSI ruled that the evaluation of the bids was incorrectly made. The local government will now be forced to reassess the proposals to the public tender. The court decision will probably lead to a delay in the conclusion of the superstructure project, which was scheduled to happen next year.

Ferries delayed due to thick fog

Yesterday’s ferry service was affected in the morning due to the thick fog, according to a report by TDM. Some of the morning ferries were slightly delayed or travelled slower because of the fog. One female passenger said that her ferry from Hong Kong to Zhuhai was canceled, and she had to take a ferry to Macau and then cross the border to get to Zhuhai. Another Hong Kong passenger said that his ferry was not delayed for departure, but it took the ferry 15 minutes longer to arrive at Macau than normal.