‘US charges against me are political’, Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng says after arrest in UN bribery scandal
Macau real estate mogul accuses US government of prosecuting him for geopolitical reasons to slow the progress of Chinese influence over developing nations
Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng, who was arrested in a UN bribery scandal last year, has said charges against him are politically motivated.
His arrest was a way for the United States to block the a major UN conference centre being built in Macau and slow the progress of Chinese influence over developing nations, Ng’s lawyers wrote in papers filed at a New York federal court on Thursday.
They argued the case was meant to silence Ng’s advocacy for the project, which would have given poor nations a permanent meeting venue in China.
“There is every reason to believe the UN has, indeed, completely shelved the idea of such a centre,” Ng’s lawyers wrote, according to Associated Press. “The US geopolitical interest in slowing the progress of Chinese influence over developing nations has been achieved.”
The Chinese property developer, who has pleaded not guilty, was arrested in September in New York and later charged with bribery and money laundering. He has been under house arrest since October.