More details have emerged of the rags- to-riches Macau billionaire at the center of a bribery scandal that has rocked the United Nations.
On Tuesday, a US federal prosecutor charged David Ng Lap-seng, 68, with playing a central role in a US$1.3 million (US$10 million) bribery scheme to corrupt former president of the United Nations General Assembly John Ashe.
Ng was denied bail in Manhattan federal court, just as he was two weeks ago when he was arrested on charges that he was failing to accurately report what he planned to do with US$4.5 million in cash he brought into the US over several years aboard private jets.
At the time, investigators said, he was wearing a US$200,000 watch.
In court papers, investigators wrote that Ng’s chief assistant, Jeff C Yin, revealed in a recorded interview after his arrest two weeks ago that his boss made payments to obtain official action from the United Nations on a multibillion-dollar project to construct a UN conference center in his hometown as “Ng’s ‘legacy’ in Macau.”
Ng says he had just 100 yuan when he started his business as a hawker on the streets of Macau after migrating from Guangdong. He began building his massive empire in the textile and clothes wholesale industry before entering the property sector.
Authorities say that in the mid- 1990s Ng funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic National Committee through a restaurant owner who knew then-President Bill Clinton.
He visited the White House at least 10 times and was photographed with the president and first lady Hillary Clinton.
The restaurant owner eventually pleaded guilty to a felony.
In March this year, he joined the third meeting of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – the top advisory body – where he suggested turning Hengqin island, Zhuhai, into a tax- free area. In August, he was appointed as an adviser of the Macau Economic Development Committee.
During an earlier court appearance after Ng’s arrest, a prosecutor said Ng had a net worth of US$1.8 billion, had US$300 million in annual earnings, owned US$1 billion in Chinese real estate and had a US$30 million fleet of private jets.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said he was shocked by the bribery allegations.
“The secretary-general was shocked and deeply troubled to learn this morning of the allegations against John Ashe, the former president of the General Assembly, which go to the heart of the integrity of the United Nations,” Ban’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
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