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Macau developer charged in US for ‘importing’ US$4.5m
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UNITED States authorities have charged a property developer from the Chinese territory of Macau and his assistant with engaging in a two-year scheme to import more than US$4.5 million into America under false pretenses.
Ng Lap Seng and his colleague Jeff Yin, 29, were accused of engaging in a conspiracy to obstruct and make false statements to US customs officials.
The two men were arrested on Saturday, according to a spokesman for Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara. Prosecutors in Bharara’s public corruption unit are handling the case after an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Neither Ng nor anyone from his Macau-based company Sun Kian Yip Group were available for comment on the case.
His lawyer Kevin Tung said it was up to the prosecution to prove Ng’s guilt. “I don’t have to prove my client is innocent,” he said.
Ng, 68, heads a major property development firm in Macau, and his interests straddle casinos and apparel. He also sits on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body.
According to the criminal complaint, between July 2013 and this month, Ng, with help from Yin, carried more than US$4.5 million worth of US dollar bills from China into the United States.
The two men concealed the true purpose of the money, repeatedly telling US Customs and Border Protection officials falsely that it was for buying art, antiques or real estate, or was to be used for gambling, it said.
The complaint did not specify its real purpose, but cited a June 2014 meeting with an unidentified business associate in the New York City borough of Queens to which Ng took a suitcase containing about US$400,000 in cash that he had falsely claimed was meant for gambling and buying paintings.
An FBI agent served a federal subpoena on Ng in July 2014 in connection with an unrelated investigation, the complaint said.
The subpoena required Ng to appear personally two months later but he failed to do so or to respond, it said.
Ng has previously figured in a Congressional probe into how foreign money was funneled into the Democratic National Committee before the 1996 presidential election during the Clinton administration. He was never charged.
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