| Macau billionaire in UN bribery case goes home on $68 million bail |
New York: A billionaire real estate developer from Macau accused by US authorities of bribing a former United Nations General Assembly president won the right to be released on $US50 million bail ($68 million) and live under house arrest in a luxury Manhattan apartment.
Ng Lap Seng, 68, had been in US custody since his arrest on September 19, after a federal judge previously determined his financial resources made the Chinese citizen too much of a flight risk.
But over the objections of a federal prosecutor, US Magistrate Judge Kevin Fox in Manhattan accepted a proposal by Mr Ng's attorneys to allow him to live under house arrest at a $US3.6 million apartment under 24-hour watch by two private security guards.
The $US50 million bail must be secured by $US20 million cash and the apartment, Judge Fox said, adding Mr Ng must also wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and bear the guards' $US200-an-hour cost.
Prosecutor Daniel Richenthal said the US government may appeal. He argued it was "not appropriate for wealthy defendants to buy their freedom".
Benjamin Brafman, Mr Ng's lawyer, countered that arrangements for home detention with security guards had been seen before, including with convicted Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff.
"Rich people should not be put in jail just because they are rich," he said.
Judge Fox also on Friday set bail at $US500,000 for another defendant in the case, Australia-China socialite Sheri Yan, who was chief executive of the Global Sustainability Foundation, and ordered house arrest.
Mr Ng was arrested on September 19 with his assistant, Jeff Yin, for allegedly making false statements to customs officials as to why they brought $US4.5 million in cash into the United States from China.
They were charged on October 6 with four others, including Ms Yan and John Ashe, a former ambassador to the United Nations from Antigua and Barbuda who served as UN General Assembly president from 2013-14, for engaging in a corruption scheme.
Prosecutors said Mr Ashe had taken more than $US1.3 million in bribes from Chinese businessmen including Mr Ng, who has a net worth of $US1.8 billion and $US1 billion in real estate holdings.
Prosecutors said Mr Ng, who heads Sun Kian Ip Group, paid Mr Ashe more than $500,000 through intermediaries to seek the United Nations' support of a UN-sponsored conference centre in Macau.
The intermediaries included Francis Lorenzo, a now-suspended deputy UN ambassador from the Dominican Republic, who prosecutors said Mr Ng also bribed.
Those bribes include the $US3.6 million apartment Mr Ng owns and will reside in, according to Mr Richenthal, who said it had been "effectively gifted" to Mr Lorenzo.
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