Sunday Times 2
Chinese property mogul from Macau convicted for corrupting the UN
A Macau billionaire who is a high-profile political adviser in China and whose bribery case shed light on corruption at the United Nations was convicted this week for corrupting the global body with kickbacks to diplomats including former UN General Assembly president, John Ashe from Antigua and Barbuda.
Ng Lap-seng, center, leaves federal court in Manhattan, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Ng Lap-seng, a Chinese real estate mogul from the Chinese city of Macau, the gambling haven, turned the UN into his “private band of profiteers’’, US prosecutors said after his conviction for bribery and money laundering on Thursday in a Manhattan court. He will be sentenced later and was denied bail.
Ng had cooked up elaborate schemes to bribe some of the most high profile UN figures. His bribes scheme included a setting up an NGO in the US, through which he funneled his own cash to UN diplomats to achieve his grand, personal ambitions.
The multimillion-dollar corruption took place during the tenure of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban, a South Korean, held office from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2016 and on June 21, 2011, was re-elected for a second term.
When the Macau tycoon Ng was escorted to court in December 2015 a few months after his arrest, he had the nerve to demand through his lawyers that the trial start immediately. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told court that Ng’s businesses are beginning to suffer substantial setbacks. “It’s not fair. We’re asking for an immediate trial,” Reuters reported him as telling court at the time.
Ng was not going anywhere in a hurry. He was denied bail and confined to an apartment. But in his haste, Ng seemed to have changed his business suit into a prison jumpsuit.
Ng was convicted in the United States after a four-week trial on six counts of bribery of more than US$ 1.3 million (Rs 199.8 million) to UN diplomats.
After his conviction in a Manhattan court, acting U.S. Attorney Joon H Kim said in a statement: “In his unbridled pursuit of even greater personal fortune, billionaire Ng Lap-seng corrupted the highest levels of the United Nations. Through bribes and no show jobs, Ng turned leaders of the league of nations into his private band of profiteers. Ng’s journey from a Macau real estate mogul to convicted felon should serve as a cautionary tale to all tempted to follow his path.’’
Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg said Ng “corrupted the United Nations’’ The Associated Press reported her as saying on Thursday.
Ng, who headed the Sun Kian Ip Group, conspired with and paid bribes to Francis Lorenzo, a former UN ambassador from the Dominican Republic, and John W Ashe, the late former permanent representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the UN and the 68th President of the UN General Assembly.
With the assistance of Jeff C Yin, an accountant and co-conspirator who worked with Ng and others and previously pleaded guilty, Ng orchestrated a scheme to get UN blessing for a multibillion dollar “Macau Conference Centre’’ that he hoped to build in Macau using the Macau Real Estate Development Company.
Ng wanted the centre to serve as a location for meetings, discussions, forums, and other events associated with the UN. In particular, he wanted it to serve as the permanent home of the annual “Global South-South Development Expo,” which is run by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation, and is hosted in a different country or city every year, the US Department of Justice said.
Ng agreed to and did bribe ambassador Ashe and ambassador Lorenzo in exchange for their agreement to use their official positions to advance Ng’s interest in obtaining formal UN support for the “Macau Conference Center’’.
Ng made the payment to the envoys in a variety of forms. He appointed Lorenzo as the president of South-South News, a New York-based organisation – funded by Ng – which described itself as a media platform dedicated to advancing the implementation of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, the US Justice Department said.
Ng handed out bribes to Lorenzo through South-South News, as well as, among other things, by transmitting payments from Macau to a company in the Dominican Republic affiliated with Lorenzo’s brother.
Through South-South News, Ng also made payments to Ashe, including to Ashe’s wife, who was paid in her capacity as a “consultant” to South-South News, and to an account that Ashe had set up, purportedly to raise money for his role as president of UN General Assembly.
Ng also gave bribes through cash and wire payments to Ashe and Lorenzo.
The UN diplomats who took the bribes agreed to advance Macau tycoon Ng’s objectives to submit an official document to the then Secretary-General Ban in support of the “Macau Conference Centre’’.
Ashe and Lorenzo submitted an official document to Ban in support of the “Macau Conference Centre’’. The UN document claimed that there was a need to build the “Macau Conference Centre’’ to support the UN’s global development goals. Ashe, aided by Lorenzo, submitted the UN document to the UN General Assembly in or about late February 2012, the US Justice Department said. More than a year later, at Ng’s behest, the diplomats revised the UN document to refer specifically to Ng’s company, the Macau Real Estate Development Company, as a partner in the “Macau Conference Center’’ project. The document requested that Ban circulate the document “as a document of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly,” under a specific item of the official UN General Assembly agenda. Ban followed this request and made the document an official part of the UN General Assembly record.
Ashe, who became UN General Assembly president in 2013, died last year. He was arrested but not charged. Lorenzo was charged and pleaded guilty to bribery, money laundering, tax fraud and illegal bank accounts. He then testified against the Macau tycoon Ng.
Another Chinese woman, Yan Shiwei, aka Sheri Yan, the co-founder and former chief executive officer of the Global Sustainability Foundation, was jailed a year ago to 20 months in prison for paying more than US$800,000 in bribes to Ashe. She pleaded guilty in January 2016. Chinese woman Heidi Hong Piao, aka “Heidi Park” also pleaded guilty.