UN CORRUPTION SCANDAL | Ng Lap Seng, John Ashe freed on bail

Ng Lap Seng, center, leaves federal court with his attorney Benjamin Brafman, right, after he was released on bail 

Macau developer Ng Lap Seng was released on Monday after posting USD25 million of his $50 million bail and agreeing to pay for two private security guards to be in attendance around-the-clock at his Manhattan apartment, to ensure he does not flee. Ng, 67, is at the center of a bribery case that has drawn scrutiny into the operations of the United Nations.
The former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe, who is facing tax charges in a bribery case, was also released on Monday on a USD1 million bail even though a prosecutor said it is likely that he will face additional charges.
Ashe, 61, was freed at dusk after an electronic bracelet was attached and the last of four co-signers to his bail package was approved. He declined to comment as he left the Manhattan federal court.
Earlier in the day, assistant U.S. attorney Janis Echenberg told Judge Vernon S. Broderick that prosecutors were “rather likely” to bring additional charges against Ashe, a former U.N. ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda who served for a year in the largely ceremonial role of U.N. General Assembly president until September 2014. So far, he only faces tax counts that carry a maxi-
mum penalty of six years in prison.
The U.S. government claims Ashe, of Dobbs Ferry, New York, was a central figure in a bribery conspiracy from 2011 through to 2014 in which Macau developer Ng Lap Seng and other businesspeople paid him over $1 million in bribes to support a multibillion-dollar U.N. sponsored conference center that Ng hoped to build as his legacy in Macau, where he lived.
Also charged in the case was Francis Lorenzo, a deputy U.N. ambassador from the Dominican Republic. Prosecutors said Lorenzo was paid tens of thousands of dollars a month by Ng’s organizations to support the Macau project.
Lorenzo, 48, was also released on bail on Monday. Lorenzo, who has been suspended from his diplomatic post, met the conditions of a $2 million bail package.
Lawyers for all three men have said they are fighting the charges and will be vindicated. Lawyers for Ashe and Lorenzo also say it is likely they will make immunity claims in the case. MDT/Agencies