Ng Lap Seng’s ties with Clinton highlighted

The alleged role of Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng in the 1990s “Donorgate” scandal has surfaced yet again after Mr Ng was arrested in the U.S. on Saturday. Mr Ng was charged with engaging in a two-year scheme to import over USD4.5 million in cash under false pretenses.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, a 1998 U.S. Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee report stated that Mr Ng had provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign funds to a former Little Rock, Ark., restaurateur named Charlie Trie, who then passed on the money to the Democratic National Committee.
Mr Trie pleaded guilty to breaching U.S. campaign finance laws, but Mr Ng was not accused of any wrongdoing. Another U.S. congressional report would later criticize Mr Ng among others for not cooperating during the investigation.
The U.S. Senate committee report showed that Mr Ng wired over USD1 million from his accounts in Macau and Hong Kong to Mr Trie’s accounts, which were accessed in Little Rock and Washington, D.C. “Trie’s contributions purchased access for himself and Ng to the highest levels of our government,” the report read. According to the WSJ, the report also highlighted evidence that both men attended events with President Bill Clinton and made several visits to the White House.
Authorities in the U.S. arrested the Macau real estate developer along with his assistant, Jeff Yin. The pair have been charged with providing false statements about their purpose for importing millions of dollars in cash into the United States over the past two years.