Processing your request


please wait...

Enforcement Action Dataset

 

Initiation Date:    03/16/2016  Information

Prosecuting Agency:    U.S. Department of Justice

Type of Action:    DOJ Criminal Proceeding

Docket or Case Number:    16-cr-00495

Court:    S.D. New York

Name of Prosecuting Attorneys:   

  • Geoffrey Berman, United States Attorney
  • Sandra L. Moser, Acting Chief, Fraud Section, Criminal Division
  • Daniel C. Richenthal, Assistant United States Attorney
  • Janis M. Echenberg, Assistant United States Attorney
  • Rahul Mukhi, Assistant United States Attorney
  • Douglas S. Zolkind, Assistant United States Attorney
  • David Last, Trial Attorney, Fraud Section, Criminal Division

US Assisting Agencies:   Unknown

Foreign Enforcement Action/Investigation:   Unknown

Foreign Assisting Agencies:   Unknown

Origin of the Proceeding:    Unknown

Whistleblower:    Unknown

Case Status:    Resolved


Summary  Information

Julia Vivi Wang was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China. Starting in at least 2010, she served as the Vice President at South-South News and the International Organization for South-South Cooperation, both NGOs with the stated missions of advancing United Nations' development goals and promoting sustainable development.

According to the complaint filed in this case, from about 2012 through 2015, the Amabassador to the U.N. for Antigua, John Ashe, participated in a wide-ranging scheme of international bribery, money laundering, and tax evasion in which he solicited and received payments and other things of value from Chinese businesspeople in return for official action. These payments were facilitated by, among others, Francis Lorenzo, the then-deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. for the Dominican Republic. As part of this scheme, Wang agreed to pay and did pay a bribe of $500,000 to Ashe in exchange for Antiguan diplomatic positions for her late husband and another Chinese businessman.

On March 16, 2016, the DOJ filed a two count complaint in the Southern District of New York against Wang alleging money laundering violations. On July 21, 2016, an updated Information was filed alleging the same counts. On April 4, 2018, the DOJ filed a three count superseding Information against Wang, this time alleging conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, direct violations of the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, and filing fale income tax returns. On the same date, Wang agreed to plead guilty to the charges in the superseding Information. Any plea agreement between Wang and the DOJ was not filed in the docket at the time. On June 26, 2019, the court sentenced Wang to time served in prison plus 3 years probation and ordered her to pay a mandatory assessment of $300 in addition to the $629,295 in resitution to the IRS ordered in a separate filing.

Ashe and Lorenzo, along with several other defendants, were prosecuted by the DOJ in a related proceeding initiated in October 2015. Ashe died in an accident in his home on June 22, 2016, so the charges against him were dismissed. Lorenzo pled guilty to the charges against him on April 27, 2017.

Protected Content


Please Log In or Sign Up for a free account to access restricted features of the Clearinghouse website, including the Advanced Search form and the full case pages.

When you sign up, you will have the option to save your search queries performed on the Advanced Search form.