Macau real estate developer Ng Lap Seng arrested in US over alleged US$4.5 million import scheme
The tycoon allegedly lied about the purpose of moving the large sum
News of the arrest of Ng Lap Seng - a property developer from the former Portuguese enclave who was caught up in a political funding scandal involving former US president Bill Clinton in the 1990s – comes just hours before President Xi Jinping touches down in Seattle to begin a landmark US visit.
It also follows the high-profile repatriation to the mainland three days ago of one of Beijing’s most wanted fugitives, Yang Jinjun.
Read more: Beijing's most wanted: US repatriates one of the leading 'Sky Net' fugitives days before Xi Jinping's visit
Yang, 57, who is suspected of bribery and corruption and fled to the U.S. in 2001, was listed as a wanted person by the Chinese government as part of their Skynet operation earlier this year. He was charged on his return to the mainland.
Ng and Jeff Yin, his assistant, were accused in a criminal complaint made public on Monday in federal court in Manhattan of engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct and make false statements to US customs officials.
Both men were arrested on Saturday, according to a spokesman for Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Prosecutors in Bharara’s public corruption unit are handling the case following an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A lawyer for Ng, 68, did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Yin, 29, provided no comment on the charges.
Ng was part of the 100-strong Beijing-appointed committee – chaired by then Vice-Premier Qian Qichen - which oversaw the Macau handover to Chinese rule in December 1999. A year earlier, while chairman of the Sun Kian Ip Group, his name was last year linked to the scandal surrounding Asian funding for US President Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party.