David Ng Lap Seng (; born June 1948) is a Macau-based Chinese billionaire real estate businessman, chairman of the Sun Kian Ip Group (新建业集团). He is a member of the National Committee of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s United front (China), united front system. Its members adv ...

(CPPCC).

Criminal investigation

Ng Lap Seng is the subject of an American investigation, and faces bribery, money laundering and other charges, as he allegedly that he paid bribes via intermediaries totalling US$500,000 to former UN General Assembly president

John William Ashe John William Ashe (20 August 1954 – 22 June 2016) was an Antiguan diplomat and politician. He was the President of the United Nations General Assembly at its 68th session, which ran September 2013 to September 2014. He was also President of th ...

. According t
Farrukh Khan, the Program Manager on Climate Finance at the UN Secretary General's Office
Ashe played a central role in the negotiations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
On 22 September 2014 Ashe launched the Global Sustainable Development Foundation
to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the SDGs. It was to "support the UN's mission and accelerate the achievement of the MDGs and SDGs". According to a 2021 report by IPS News
“John William Ashe skillfully set the stage for the SDGs by working with larger countries to create a process for the SDGs that truly had global buy in."
On the 7 March 2015 Ng's Sun Kian Ip Group signed a "cooperation agreement" with the Director of the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Yiping Zhou. In April 2015 the deputy director of the UNOSSC, Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, met with Ng in Macau. In August 2015 the Sun Kian Ip Group sponsored a High-Level Strategy Forum for the UNOSSC. The Forum was also attended by former President of the UN General Assembly,

. Ashe was arrested, along with Ng and others, in October 2015 by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

. Since October 2015, he has been confined to his New York City apartment on US$50 million bail, with very tight restrictions. As of January 2016, two suspects have pleaded guilty. In March 2016, a third suspect, Francis Lorenzo, deputy ambassador to the United Nations from the Dominican Republic, pleaded guilty. US prosecutors estimate that Ng's net worth is in excess of US$1 billion. Ng Lap Seng was also part of a Democratic fund-raising scandal when Bill Clinton was president, and is mentioned in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

. In July 2017, the U.S. District Court in Manhattan found Ng guilty of all charges he faced, following a month-long trial. The

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

rejected an attempt by Ng in 2019 to argue that U.N. officials do not fall under the purview of the

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) (, ''et seq.'') is a United States federal law that prohibits U.S. citizens and entities from Bribery, bribing foreign government officials to benefit their business interests. The FCPA is applic ...

(FCPA). On 16 March 2020 a Petition for Writ of Certiorari was submitted to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory covers the states of Connecticut, New York (state), New York, and Vermont, and it has ap ...

. The Second Circuit affirmed Ng's conviction under 18 U.S.C. SS666, “which criminalises

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

of any agent”, and under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). On 1 June 2020 “The court held that the word ‘organization’ as used in section 666, and defined by 1 U.S.C. 1 and 18 U.S.C. 18, applies to all non‐government legal persons, including public international organizations such as the U.N. The court also held that the ‘official act’ quid pro quo for bribery as proscribed by 18 U.S.C. 201(b)(1), defined by id. section 201(a)(3), and explained in McDonnell v. United States, does not delimit bribery as proscribed by section 666 and the FCPA.” On 17 March 2021 a U.S. judge ordered Ng Lap Seng's release from prison on "compassionate release" saying he would be safer in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

than in a prison during the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Ng had served 34 months of his four-year prison sentence following his 2017 conviction for bribing two United Nations ambassadors. On 21 April 2021 Ng Lap Seng returned to Macau. He spent three weeks in a quarantine hotel. Ng had been scheduled to be released from prison on 23 December 2021.

1996 United States campaign finance controversy

Ng Lap Seng was implicated in the

1996 United States campaign finance controversy The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy, sometimes referred to as Chinagate, was an effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration and also involve ...

, being named in 1998 Senate Report ''Investigation on Illegal or Improper Activities in Connection With The 1996 Federal Election Campaigns.'' In the report, Ng is said to have transferred approximately $1.4 million to Yah-Lin "Charlie" Trie from 1994 to 1996. Trie was convicted and sentenced to three years' probation and four months' home detention for violating federal campaign finance laws after he attempted to donate $450,000 to Bill Clinton's legal defense fund (for his impeachment trials). According to the Senate Report, Ng Lap Seng is said to have laundered his donations through Trie and others to the

Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...

so that Ng could attend a White House function.

Criminal investigation

1996 United States campaign finance controversy

References

Further reading