Shocked! Shocked! Former Head of UN General Assembly Charged in $1.3 Million Bribery Scheme

In the grand casino of UN corruption cases, here we go again. This time the news is the arrest on Tuesday, in Dobbs Ferry, New York, of a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John W. Ashe. Along with five others, Ashe, who also served for years as ambassador to the UN for the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda, has been charged in the Southern District of New York with taking part in a $1.3 million bribery scheme.

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Allegedly, the scheme entailed bribing Ashe himself. According to the U.S. Attorney’s press release, all six defendants “were charged in connection with a multi-year scheme to pay more than $1.3 million in bribes to ASHE in exchange for official actions in his capacity as UNGA President and Antiguan government official in support of Chinese business interests.” Though that summary hardly does justice to the saga detailed in the criminal complaint. Among the other five defendants is a former frequent visitor to the Clinton White House, Ng Lap Seng, a.k.a. David Ng, a Macau real estate tycoon who figured in some heated controversies of the late 1990s. In this latest incarnation, as described in the complaint, it appears Ng was “seeking to build a multi-billion dollar, UN-sponsored conference center in Macau, China.” As the Southern District press release details, Ng was arrested last month along with another of the defendants, Jeff C. Yin, “based on a separate complaint alleging that NG and YIN agreed to make false statements to Customs and Border Protection officers about the true purpose of approximately $4.5 million in cash that NG and YIN had brought into the U.S. from China since 2013.” More...