Ng Lap-seng, one of China’s richest men, was found guilty on bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges in Manhattan federal court
A Chinese billionaire who wanted to build a United Nations centre in Macau was convicted at his bribery trial on Thursday.
The verdict was returned in Manhattan federal court against Ng Lap-seng, one of China’s richest men. Ng was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Ng from 2010 to 2015 bribed two UN ambassadors with hundreds of thousands of dollars to support his project to build a UN conference centre, but defence lawyers contended that Ng only paid money when he was asked to spend it to speed the project along.
A prosecutor earlier this week had urged the jury to convict Ng, saying he bribed two United Nations ambassadors so he could build a UN facility in China that would be as big as the one in New York, a claim a defence attorney dismissed as “a big zero”.
“The defendant Ng Lap-seng corrupted the United Nations, ” Assistant US Attorney Janis Echenberg told the federal court jury on Tuesday during closings at a trial that kept Ng confined under 24-hour guard in a luxury Manhattan apartment for the last two years.
Bribe claims against Chinese billionaire Ng Lap-seng ‘a big zero’ , says defence lawyer
She said the 69-year-old Ng paid millions of dollars to two UN ambassadors over a five-year period to clear away red tape so he could build a conference centre in Macau that would be the “Geneva of Asia”, where tens of thousands of people would spend money at his hotel, a marina, a condominium complex, a heliport and a shopping centre.
