Ex-United Nations President, Four Others Charged With Major Bribery

John Ashe walks at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial after paying flower tribute at Rajghat in New Delhi in this March 21, 2014 file photo. Reuters/Adnan Abidi/Files

[From article]

U.S. authorities charged a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, a billionaire Macau real estate developer and four others on Tuesday for engaging in a wide-ranging corruption scheme.
John Ashe, a former U.N. ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda who was general assembly president from 2013 to 2014, was accused in a complaint filed in federal court in New York of taking more than $1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen, including developer Ng Lap Seng.
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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "shocked and deeply troubled" by the allegations, said his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. The U.N. had not previously been informed of the probe, Dujarric said, but would cooperate if contacted.
The case followed the Sept. 19 arrest of Ng, 68, and an assistant, Jeff Yin, 29, for falsely claiming that $4.5 million they brought into the United States from China from 2013 to 2015 was meant for gambling or buying art, antiques or real estate.
[. . .]


David Ng (Ng Lap Seng), Chairman of the Sun Kian IP Group Foundation sits at the High-level Multi-Stakeholder Strategy Forum in Macau, China in this handout photo taken on August 25, 2015, provided by the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. 
Reuters/United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation/Handout via Reuters

According to the complaint, Ng, through intermediaries, paid Ashe more than $500,000 for telling the U.N. secretary general that a yet-to-be built multibillion-dollar U.N.-sponsored conference center in Macau was needed.
[. . .]

The unnamed non-profit matches the description of the Global Sustainability Foundation. And while the complaint did not name the prime minister, Baldwin Spencer held the post at the time.
The foundation and Antigua and Barbuda's mission to the United Nations did not respond to requests for comment. Spencer could not be reached.
The complaint said Ashe solicited bribes in various forms, including payments to cover a family vacation to New Orleans and the construction of a $30,000 basketball court at his house in Dobbs Ferry, New York, the complaint said.
From 2012 to 2014, more than $3 million from foreign governments and individuals was deposited in bank accounts controlled by Ashe, who spent the money on his mortgage, BMW lease payments and Rolex watches, the complaint said.
The complaint only charged Ashe with tax offenses, which it said are not covered by any diplomatic immunity he enjoys.

[. . .]
Ng's name previously surfaced in U.S. investigations into how foreign money might have been funneled into the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 elections, when it was working to re-elect President Bill Clinton.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/06/us-usa-crime-macau-idUSKCN0S01CG20151006

Tue Oct 6, 2015 2:31pm EDT
Ex-U.N. General Assembly president, five others charged in U.S. in bribe scheme
NEW YORK
BY NATE RAYMOND AND JOSEPH AX