Ng Lap Seng

A Chinese billionaire who wanted to build a United Nations center in Macau and was accused of illegally paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to U.N. ambassadors to make it happen was convicted at his bribery trial on Thursday July 27 2017. The verdict was returned in Manhattan federal court against Ng Lap Seng, one of China's richest men. Ng was convicted of bribery, conspiracy and money laundering charges. Prosecutors presented evidence that Ng from 2010 to 2015 bribed two U.N. ambassadors with hundreds of thousands of dollars to support his project to build a U.N. conference center, but defense lawyers contended that Ng only paid money when he was asked to spend it to speed the project along. The 69-year-old Ng paid millions of dollars to the two U.N. ambassadors to clear away red tape so he could build a conference center in Macau that would be the "Geneva of Asia," where tens of thousands of people would spend money at his hotel, a marina, a condominium complex, a heliport and a shopping center.