Macau billionaire set for US trial in January

Ng Lap Seng

Macau real estate developer and billionaire Ng Lap Seng and his assistant will face a federal trial in the U.S. in January on charges of bribing former president of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly John Ashe, who died last month. U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick set the trial date for January 23, 2017, according to Reuters.
Commenting to the news agency, Hugh Mo, lawyer for Ng, said that they “want to proceed to trial as quickly as possible.” Ng and his lawyers maintain that he and his assistant are innocent.
The Macau magnate has been accused of bribing John Ashe in the amount of at least USD500,000 (MOP4 million) in return for the international organization’s support for a UN-backed South-South conference center in Macau to be built by Ng’s Sun Kian Ip Group. His group has also been tied to a USD1.5 million (MOP12 million) donation to the relevant UN body, the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, which focuses on the promotion of collaboration among developing countries, particularly in the southern hemisphere.
Last week the scope of the accusations leveled against Ng was widened when an additional charge that the billionaire had provided benefits to one or more officials from the UN’s Development Program (UNDP) was revealed. Allegedly, Ng bribed the officials to garner additional support for the construction of the conference center.
A UNDP audit released in May said that the “donations” made by Ng had been partly used to cover the costs of a controversial conference in Macau last year, which was co-sponsored by Sun Kian Ip Group.
The conference has come under examination for a case of possible bribery as event attendees and UN staff members were given 64GB iPads during the conference, with no attempt made to reclaim the devices at its conclusion.
Another indictment introduced last week by a federal grand jury in Manhattan, was the accusation that Ng and his assistant, Jeff Yin, had agreed to continue payments to Ashe even after he left office. The indictment expands the timeframe of the alleged crimes from 2014 until September 2015, at which time Ng and Yin were arrested.
Last month it was reported that the former UN General Assembly president had died in a weightlifting accident when a barbell he was lifting from a bench dropped on his neck. It is being regarded as an accident according to police authorities. DB