Ng Lap Seng portrayed as criminal and hero at trial

In this Oct. 26, 2015 file photo, Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng (left) is seen leaving federal court

Macau billionaire Ng Lap Seng was portrayed as a criminal and a hero during opening statements at his United Nations bribery trial on Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Zolkind told Manhattan federal court jurors that 69-year- old Ng Lap Seng corrupted two U.N. ambassadors so he could build a legacy by constructing a massive U.N. conference center in China.

“This case is about this man’s effort to corrupt the United Nations to get what he wanted,” prosecutor Douglas Zolkind said of the defendant, Macau tycoon Ng Lap Seng.

Defense attorney Tai Park countered that Ng was a philanthropist willing to spend billions of dollars to build the center in Macau to benefit the U.N. before being betrayed by one of the ambassadors who requested contributions from him.

Ng, a billionaire real estate developer, is accused of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to former UN General Assembly President John Ashe and other officials to win their backing for the multibillion-dollar conference center for the UN in Macau that he wanted to build. Ng denies the bribery allegations.

The idea was to make the center the home to much of China’s UN-related activity. Ng also sought to have an annual UN conference on developing nation issues permanently held there, replacing the previous practice of using a different host city every year.

Authorities allege the conference center – which Ng agreed to build at no cost – was intended to enhance the value of a surrounding complex of thousands of apartment units, office space, a casino and hotel that he planned to develop.

Park said Ng’s actions were consistent with how the U.N. operates with public-private partnerships and he was being vilified after a heroic gesture of philanthropy. The defense lawyer also countered Zolkind’s claims by saying it will be clear to jurors that Ng had embarked on a quest that had no realistic hope of profit.

“That’s not bribery, whether it’s the United Nations, this court, this country or Mars,” Park said. “It is not a crime to support a cause other people want to advance. […] That’s philanthropy!”

Six defendants were originally charged in the case, including John Ashe, who in addition to serving as president of the general assembly, was also the ambassador to the UN from the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda. Ashe died in a weightlifting accident last year as his lawyer was negotiating a plea agreement with the government.

The other remaining defendants have pleaded guilty, with some agreeing to cooperate with the prosecution. One of them, Francis Lorenzo, is now expected to be a key government witness and testify against Ng during trial.

Lorenzo was a deputy ambassador to the UN from the Dominican Republic who was accused of funneling some of the bribe money to Ashe. In his guilty plea, he admitted in court that he helped get a USD200,000 payment into a foreign bank account belonging to Ashe, saying “the purpose was to influence John Ashe to the benefit of Ng Lap Seng and others.”

The officials then used their positions at the UN to advance Ng’s efforts to win formal support for the conference center development, including issuing a contract for the development and agreement letters naming Ng’s company as the exclusive developer of the property.

Zolkind said the conference center was never built because Ng was arrested in September 2015 before he could capitalize on U.N. documents listing his company as the developer.

Meanwhile, Park argued that the project was a costly undertaking, and that Ng stood to gain little from it.

“This was going to be an enormously costly undertaking. If this was a bribery scheme, ladies and gentlemen, it was the dumbest one ever conceived,” Park said. “If he breaks even before he’s dead, he’s a lucky man.”

Ng has been confined under 24-hour guard in a luxury Manhattan apartment on $50 million bail while awaiting trial. The trial before Judge Vernon Broderick could last four to six weeks. MDT/Agencies

How the USD1.7m was spent

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Zolkind said last week that Ng paid at least USD1.7 million in bribes to ambassadors in exchange for United Nations support.

He said jurors will hear testimony about bribes from Francis Lorenzo, who was paid $1.5 million over a five-year period to head a Manhattan-based media company for Ng when he served as a diplomat from the Dominican Republic to the United Nations.

Defense attorney Park argued that the $240,000 paid annually to Lorenzo, who was the company’s president was not an act of corruption: “It’s called wages, ladies and gentlemen, not bribes.”

Zolkind said Ng began sending Lorenzo an extra $30,000 a month in late 2012 “for the express purpose of obtaining U.N. approval for the conference center.”

At the same time, Ng allegedly paid a $200,000 bribe in 2014 to John Ashe while he was General Assembly president and U.N. ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda and paid $2,500 monthly to Ashe’s wife to perform a no-show job at the Manhattan media company, the prosecutor said.

Some of the money was used to fund the construction of a basketball court at Ashe’s home in New York and pay for a family vacation, prosecutors have said. Ashe allegedly used some of the money he received to lease a BMW, buy Rolex watches and order custom-tailored suits, as well as sharing some of it with Antigua’s prime minister to advance Chinese interests in the country.

Park said Ashe, who died in an accident last year, had requested the $200,000 to support his presidency. “It didn’t go into his back pocket,” Park said. “It was put to good use.”

Park said payments to Ashe’s wife, an expert on global climate change, came as she worked on a book about how developing nations contribute to climate change and are impacted by it.

Ng’s defense lawyer also said the jury will not see any evidence of corrupt intent or guilty conscience on Ng’s part, noting there was no effort made to conceal the payments.