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Law360 (March 16, 2021, 3:59 PM EDT ) A Chinese billionaire real estate developer serving time for allegedly bribing United Nations officials got a New York federal judge to agree Monday to cut his sentence short due to rising COVID-19 rates at his prison and his plans to leave the U.S., after the same judge previously denied early release.
U.S. District Judge Vernon S. Broderick initially rejected Ng Lap Seng's compassionate release request in May of last year because the 72-year-old developer had yet to exhaust administrative remedies and there were no reported coronavirus cases at Ng's Pennsylvania facility, FCI Allenwood Low.
But now, Ng has shown that "extraordinary and compelling" reasons require his early release, Judge Broderick said upon reconsideration of the motion.
"As of this writing, defendant has already served about 34 months — more than three-quarters of the total 43 months — in prison," the judge said. "As such, there is less of a risk that reducing defendant's sentence now will undercut the seriousness of his offense."
Ng also ditched his previous plan to be released to a shared living situation in New York City and now says he will be put immediately in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and returned to China. From there he will go to Macau, which has had extremely low exposure to COVID-19, according to the filing.
Another factor considered by Judge Broderick was the increased coronavirus caseload at Allenwood, which he said has seen at least 300 cases among prisoners and staff since May, including Ng's own roommate.
Ng also has reported health issues, including Type II diabetes, which is one of the risk factors for severe COVID-19 symptoms listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, court records show.
"In a very careful, well reasoned decision Judge Broderick granted compassionate release to Mr. Ng for the right reason," said Ng's attorney, Ben Brafman of Brafman & Associates PC. "Mr. Ng and his family are very grateful for the court's honest concern, understanding that the COVID pandemic has made his continued incarceration in a [Bureau of Prisons] facility very dangerous to his health."
Ng was found guilty in 2017 of foreign bribery, conspiracy and money laundering after a jury heard that he greased the palms of two United Nations officials in order to garner support for a conference center he planned to build in Macau. He is serving a four-year sentence and was previously set to be released this coming December.
Representatives for the government declined to comment Tuesday.
Ng is represented by Benjamin Brafman, Jacob Kaplan and Stuart Gold of Brafman & Associates PC.
The government is represented by Daniel C. Richenthal and Janis M. Echenberg of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, and David A. Last of the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division.
The case is U.S. v. Ashe et al., case number 1:15-cr-00706, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
--Editing by Marygrace Murphy.
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