Billionaire property tycoon Ng Lap-seng wants to clear name and return home, says lawyer

A billionaire Macau real-estate mogul with top-level connections in Beijing and Washington, who is under house arrest in the US over allegations that he played a key role in an alleged United Nations corruption racket, hopes to return to China "one day soon", according to his lawyer.

In the first public statements since his arrest in New York on September 19, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member, Ng Lap-seng, said through his attorney that his goal was to be exonerated and make a return to his homeland.

Benjamin Brafman, the businessman's lawyer told the Sunday Morning Post : "As for Mr Ng's expectations, in the short-term his work is to help his lawyers prepare the case for trial. In the long-term, his goal is to hopefully be exonerated so that he may one day soon return to China."

The attorney added that "this will be a long ordeal as a trial may not be possible for many months".

Ng, 67, who is also head of the Sun Kian Ip Group, was released from jail last Monday. He is now under detention at his flat, which is located near the United Nations headquarters, with electronic monitoring and he is under watch 24 hours a day by two private security guards.

Ng, who has a net worth of US$1.8 billion and US$1 billion in real estate holdings, faces bribery, money laundering and other charges. He is accused of paying John Ashe from Antigua and Barbuda, who was United Nations General Assembly president in 2013-14, more than US$500,000 to seek support for a UN-sponsored conference centre in Macau.

In order to secure bail, Ng had to put up US$20 million in cash and his flat in Manhattan, which is valued at nearly US$4 million, aside from paying US$200 an hour for the armed guards.