NEW YORK: A Chinese businessman who allegedly illegally funneled money to the Democratic National Committee before President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election has been arrested for smuggling more than $4.5 million in cash into the United States, according to Manhattan federal court papers.
Ng Lap Seng, 68, and his interpreter, Jeff Yin, 29, were busted on Saturday for sneaking cash from China to US airports, the papers state.
The criminal complaint charging Ng — a major Macau real-estate developer — and Yin says they brought $400,000 in cash to Queens after telling Customs and Border Patrol it was intended for gambling and buying paintings.
The papers do not say what Ng did with the rest of the money he brought into the country over about 10 trips between 2013 and 2015.
Ng figured prominently in the foreign-cash campaign scandal known as Donorgate ahead of the 1996 elections.
He transferred about $1.4 million to Charlie Trie, another Chinese businessman, who had known Clinton since the 1970s, with Trie then giving the money to the DNC, a US Senate investigation found.
Trie pleaded guilty in 1999 and agreed to cooperate in the Justice Department’s campaign-finance investigation. Ng was never charged.
“It is the state’s burden to prove his guilt,” said Ng defense attorney Kevin Tung.
A lawyer for Yin declined to comment.
