Australian lawmaker accuses billionaire in UN bribe scandal

CANBERRA, Australia – An Australian government lawmaker has accused a China-born Australian billionaire who generously donates to Australian political parties of conspiring to bribe a top United Nations official.

Lawmaker Andrew Hastie told Parliament late Tuesday that Chau Chak Wing was the real estate developer referred to in an unsealed U.S. indictment as conspirator who allegedly arranged to pay $200,000 in 2013 to the-then U.N. General Assembly President John Ashe.

Chau's lawyer Mark O'Brien described Hastie's accusation as "slander." O'Brien told The Australian newspaper that the FBI had given Chau a pseudonym to protect his reputation because he was never a suspect in the case.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he had no forewarning of Hastie's statement.

Ashe died in 2016. Chau was never charged.