Billionaire Sentenced to 4 Years in Federal Prison for Bribing U.N. Diplomats

"A billionaire real estate developer from Macau was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday for bribing two diplomats, including a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, to help him build a conference center in Macau.

The corruption case was the worst financial scandal for the world body since the abuse of the Iraqi oil-for-food program more than 20 years ago. In 2016, a panel appointed by the secretary general at the time, Ban Ki-moon, recommended new ethical rules and financial disclosure standards for the president the General Assembly, who is elected on a yearly basis.

The developer, Ng Lap Seng, 69, was convicted in Federal District Court in Manhattan last July on two counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of paying bribes, one count of money laundering, and two counts of conspiracy...

From 2011 to 2015, prosecutors said, Mr. Ng paid bribes to two diplomats at the United Nations, Francis Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic and John W. Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda. Mr. Ashe served as president of the General Assembly in 2013-14...

Geoffrey S. Berman, the interim United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, described the punishment as appropriate.

'Billionaire Ng Lap Seng corrupted the highest levels of the United Nations in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar real estate deal in Macau,' he said in a statement..."