Open rubber room, briber
No happy endings for this United Nations briber.
While he won’t have to sit in a jail cell, a Chinese real-estate mogul convicted of bribing UN officials has been ordered to stop indulging in closeddoor massages that sometimes stretch for hours while under house arrest awaiting sentencing.
Ng Lap Seng, convicted on July 27 of paying bribes to United Nations officials including former General Assembly President John Ashe, can no longer close his bedroom door when his masseuse visits his Midtown apartment, where he has been under home confinement since his arrest in 2015, Manhattan federal Judge Vernon Broderick ordered.
The private bedroom massages emerged at a bail hearing Monday, where prosecutors requested the 69-year-old real-estate developer be detained ahead of his sentencing date, which hasn’t been set.
“It is literally difficult to imagine a defendant with a greater incentive to flee,” said prosecutor Daniel Richenthal.
The judge let Ng remain under home detention, but set new restrictions after learning from Ng’s private security company, Guidepost Solutions, that a masseuse visits his $4 million apartment regularly and stays for between four to 10 hours at a time.
The Guidepost supervisor also testified that the masseuse, whom he called a “reputable person,” often cooks food for Ng and his guards, and that the guards do not generally search familiar members of Ng’s family for weapons when they enter the apartment.
The judge ordered that the guards find their own food source and search all visitors for metal objects.
Broderick also ordered a Chinese interpreter be hired to interpret what Ng is saying to his masseuse and other guests at his East Side apartment.
Ng was found guilty of bribing two UN ambassadors, including Ashe, to support a multibilliondollar conference center he wanted to build in Macau.