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Prosecutor: Chinese billionaire bribed 2 UN ambassadors to build legacy

Ng Lap Seng
Ng Lap Seng

Kathy Willens/AP

NEW YORK (AP) — A prosecutor says a Chinese billionaire bribed two United Nations ambassadors so he could make a UN conference center in China the "Geneva of Asia."

Assistant US Attorney Janis Echenberg told a jury during a trial's closing arguments Tuesday that 69-year-old Ng Lap Seng wanted to build a center in Macau that would rival UN headquarters in New York in size.

She says Ng paid millions of dollars in bribes from 2010 to 2015 to get past rules that would slow his effort to build his legacy.

She told jurors nearly two weeks of testimony from a suspended ambassador from the Dominican Republic was enough to convict. She said they also should look at email and bank record evidence.

Ng has pleaded not guilty.

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