Two former Chinese diplomats working at a construction company are facing charges in the US that they schemed to force employees who received visas for work only at China’s UN mission and other diplomatic facilities to instead provide private contracting work.
A criminal complaint against Zhong Dan and Wang Landong made public on Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court said the sites that received private contracting work included a Long Island residence matching the description of one tied to a UN bribery case.
That US$10 million mansion was owned by a Chinese associate of Ng Lap Seng (吳立勝), a Macau billionaire accused of bribing a UN diplomat who was questioned by the FBI about the homeowner’s intelligence ties, according to court records.
Zhong, 46, was ordered held without bail at a court hearing on Saturday. It was unclear whether Wang was in custody.
A spokeswoman for the US Attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined comment. Zhong’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the complaint, Zhong was the principal of a Chinese construction company’s US operations, while Wang was a manager.
Both were former diplomats of China, it said.
The complaint said their company hired Chinese workers who received visas solely to perform construction work at China’s UN mission or other diplomatic facilities.
They instead were forced by physical restraint, threats and abuse to perform contracting work at private sites, the complaint said, including the Long Island residence and a home owned by a Chinese-born airline worker.
Prosecutors did not name the airline employee or the owner of the Long Island residence.
However, their descriptions matched those of Lin Ying, an ex-Air China Ltd employee, and Qin Fei, who Ng has said was a consultant to his real-estate company.
FBI agents last year questioned Ng about Qin, asking if he was connected to foreign intelligence, court records showed.
Prosecutors have accused Lin of assisting military personnel at China’s UN mission to smuggle packages out of the US and helping Qin abscond to China amid an FBI investigation.
Lin has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.
Qin, who has not been charged, did not respond to requests for comment.
Ng is scheduled to go on trial in January on charges that he bribed a former UN General Assembly president to support a Macau-based conference center his company would develop. He has pleaded not guilty.
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