Ng Lap Seng asked if partner was a Chinese agent

Local billionaire Ng Lap Seng was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States last year, as to whether one of his partners was a Chinese agent, Reuters reports.
Last Fall, the real estate developer and his assistant, Jeff Yin, were charged by U.S. authorities with bribing John Ashe, who was an ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations General Assembly from 2013 to 2014.
According to the news agency, the lawyers of the businessman filed a transcript of an interview the FBI conducted with Mr. Ng, with a federal court in Manhattan last week. In a motion, the lawyers noted that FBI agents questioned if Mr. Ng knew whether his business associate, Qin Fei, was a Chinese agent or had contact with Chinese intelligence.
The businessman responded that Qin was a partner at his UN-focused news outlet South-South News, which was allegedly used for funnelling money to Mr. Ashe. He added that Qin was also a consultant at his company in Macau, Sun Kian Ip Group.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that lawyers for the 68-year-old businessman claimed that the charges against Mr. Ng were politically motivated, and were a way of preventing him from building a major UN conference centre in the Special Administrative Region.
The lawyers added in the papers filed to the court that the U.S.
government’s motives in charging the billionaire were demonstrated in its classified documents and its focus on whether his partner was a Chinese agent.
The property developer is alleged to have given Mr. Ashe over US$500,000 (MOP62,500) in bribes, for the now-deceased official to seek support from the UN to build a conference centre in Macau, which was to be developed by his company.
The former UN official, however, was found dead at the end of June from injuries resulting from lifting a barbell while he was on a weight bench.
Mr. Ng and his assistant, who have both pleaded not guilty, will face a federal trial on January 23 next year.