Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the
Southern District of New York, and Acting Assistant Attorney General John P.
Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced today that NG
LAP SENG, a/k/a “David Ng,” the chairman of a Macau real estate development
company, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for his role in a scheme to
bribe United Nations ambassadors to obtain support to build a conference center
in Macau that would host, among other events, the annual United Nations Global
South-South Development Expo. NG was
sentenced by U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick.
NG was convicted on July 27, 2017, after a five-week trial,
of two counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of
paying bribes and gratuities, one count of money laundering, and two counts of
conspiracy.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Billionaire Ng Lap Seng corrupted the
highest levels of the United Nations in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar real
estate deal in Macau. Ng exploited a center
for international diplomacy as an instrument for his greedy intentions. This Office is committed to policing official
corruption wherever it may be found.”
Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan said: “Corruption at any level of government
undermines the rule of law and cannot be tolerated. But corruption is especially corrosive when
it occurs at an international body like the United Nations. By paying bribes to two U.N. ambassadors to
advance his interest in obtaining formal support for the Macau conference
center project, Ng Lap Seng tried to manipulate the functions of the United
Nations. The sentence handed down today
demonstrates that those who engage in corruption will pay a heavy price and serves
as a reminder that no one stands above the law.”
According to the evidence presented at trial, NG, the
chairman of 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 (“UNGA”). With the assistance of Jeff C. Yin, an
accountant and co-conspirator who worked with NG and others and previously pled
guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States, NG orchestrated a scheme
with the principal objective of obtaining the formal support of the UN for a
multibillion-dollar facility that NG hoped to build in Macau using the Sun Kian
Ip Group (the “Macau Conference Center”).
NG wanted the Macau Conference Center 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 trial evidence showed that NG bribed Ambassador Ashe and
Ambassador Lorenzo (together, the “Ambassadors”) 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. As the evidence demonstrated at trial, NG
paid the Ambassadors in a variety of forms.
For example, NG appointed Ambassador Lorenzo as the president of
South-South News, a New York-based organization – funded by NG – which
described itself as a media platform dedicated to advancing the implementation
of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, a set of philanthropic goals. NG provided bribe payments to Ambassador
Lorenzo through South-South News, and by transmitting payments from Macau to a
company in the Dominican Republic affiliated with Ambassador Lorenzo’s brother
(the “Dominican Company”). Through
South-South News, NG also made payments to Ambassador Ashe, including to
Ambassador Ashe’s wife, who was paid for a no-show job as a “consultant” to
South-South News, and to an account that Ambassador Ashe had established,
purportedly to raise money for his role as president of UNGA.
According to the trial evidence, one of the actions that the
Ambassadors took in exchange for bribe payments, to advance NG’s objectives,
was to submit an official document to the then-UN Secretary-General in support
of the Macau Conference Center (the “UN Document”). The UN Document claimed that there was a need
to build the Macau Conference Center to support the UN’s global development
goals. Ambassador Ashe, aided by
Ambassador Lorenzo, initially submitted the UN Document to the UNGA in or about
late February 2012. More than a year
later, at NG’s behest, the Ambassadors 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 UN Document requested that the Secretary-General circulate the UN
Document “as a document of the sixty-sixth session of the General Assembly,”
under a specific item of the official UNGA agenda. The Secretary-General followed this request,
thereby making the UN Document an official part of the UNGA record.
* * *
In addition to the 48-month prison term, NG, 69, of Macau,
China, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. NG was also and ordered to pay a fine of $1
million, to forfeit $1.5 million, and to make restitution to the UN for its
legal fees.
Five other defendants have been charged in this matter. Lorenzo and Heidi Hong Piao pled guilty to
various charges, including bribery, and are awaiting sentencing. Jeff C. Yin pled guilty to conspiracy to
defraud the United States and was sentenced to seven months in prison. Shiwei Yan pled guilty to bribery and was
sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Co-defendant Ashe died in 2016 and the charges against him were
dismissed.
This case was investigated by the FBI and IRS-CI. The Criminal Division’s Office of
International Affairs provided significant assistance.
This case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Public
Corruption Unit and the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel C.
Richenthal, Janis M. Echenberg, and Douglas S. Zolkind, and Trial Attorney
David A. Last of the Fraud Section, are in charge of the prosecution.
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