http://www.scmp.com/news/world...aire-ng-lap-sengs-un

Assistant US Attorney Douglas Zolkind told Manhattan federal court jurors that 69-year-old Ng corrupted two UN ambassadors so he could build a legacy by constructing a massive UN conference centre in Macau.

Defence attorney Tai Park countered that Ng was a philanthropist willing to spend billions of dollars to build the centre to benefit the UN before being betrayed by one of the ambassadors who requested contributions from him.

Park said Ng’s actions were consistent with how the UN operates with public-private partnerships and he was being vilified after a heroic gesture of philanthropy.

But Zolkind said Ng paid at least US$1.7 million in bribes to ambassadors including a former UN General Assembly president so his company would get UN approval to develop the centre.

He said jurors will hear testimony about bribes from Francis Lorenzo, who was paid US$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.

But Park said of the US$240,000 paid annually to Lorenzo, who was the company’s president: “It’s called wages, ladies and gentlemen, not bribes.”

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

Park said Ashe, who died in an accident last year, had requested the US$200,000 to support his presidency.

he dropped a barbell on his neck while he was awaiting trial for the bribery. life is full of coincidences

“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.

Zolkind said the conference centre was never built because Ng was arrested in September 2015 before he could capitalise on UN documents listing his company as the developer.

Ng has been confined under 24-hour guard in a luxury Manhattan apartment on US$50 million bail while awaiting trial.

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does the name sound familiar ?

http://abcnews.go.com/Internat...al/story?id=33990683

Ng has close ties to the Chinese government and is listed as a member of a senior advisory group, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Ng was identified in a 1998 Senate report as the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars illegally funneled through an Arkansas restaurant owner, Charlie Trie, to the Democratic National Committee during the Clinton administration.

“Trie’s contributions purchased access for himself and Ng to the highest levels of our government,” the Senate report said.

Ng and Trie made a number of visits to the White House to attend Democratic National Committee-sponsored events and were photographed with President Bill Clinton and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton. ABC News reported in 1997 that Ng had made six trips to the White House.

Senate investigators said Ng “refused to meet with or answer the investigators questions,” although he was never charged with a crime in the investigation.

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of course one might wonder why a Chinese business man turned up in Manhattan in 2015 and why he brought more than $4.5 million in cash into the United States over 2014-2015.

was there an election or anything ?

quote:

...69-year-old Ng corrupted two UN ambassadors...

That which is already decayed to putrescence is beyond corruption.

Catch me up. I remember a little about this guy, at least in regards to the Clintons, but what did he do to break U.S. laws? Seems like our Federal government is spending a lot of money on this guy, for what? Because he bribed some foreign nationals?

Ng Lap Seng was eventually convicted of bribery and money laundering in connection w a United Nations bribery scandal.

After many delays, in July 2018 Ng Lap Seng finally went to the penitentiary in Allenwood, Pa. to serve a 4 year sentence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...son-ng-lap-seng.html

Why does anyone care who paid whom whatever to grease palms to build a conference center for the UN in Macau? Build it on Mars if you want, give the neighborhood dog catcher some cash if you think it will help, why does any of that matter, or how is it new? Cash = Influence, and pretty much always has been. Isn't that how it works everywhere?

Not that I give a damn about this Ng fellow.