U.N.'s top men in bribe case met at Macau event prior to arrest, it emerges, as Ban Ki-moon expresses 'shock' at corruption allegations
Conference in five-star hotel partly organised by NGO that billionaire tycoon allegedly used to funnel funds to ex-General Assembly president
Three of the men at the centre of an alleged bribes-for-influence racket at the highest levels of the United Nations involving a billionaire Macau property tycoon attended a major conference in the city just weeks prior to their arrest by US federal agents.
The conference - in a five-star hotel on the city's casino-dominated Cotai Strip at the end of August - was staged in part by a non-governmental organisation US prosecutors allege Macau tycoon Ng Lap-seng and others used to funnel corrupt funds to former United Nations General Assembly president John Ashe.
More than 200 delegates from 50 countries - including diplomats and politicians - attended the conference. Among them were real estate tycoon Ng - who has long-standing high-level connections to Beijing and Washington - Ashe and Francis Lorenzo, a UN deputy ambassador from the Dominican Republic, who has also been charged in connection with the case.
The conference was also sent a message of support from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who yesterday expressed "shock" at the corruption allegations.
A 37-page US indictment made public yesterday also outlines multiple bribery charges against American-Chinese Shiwei Yan and Heidi Hong Piao.