By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Oct. 27, 2015: The recently arrested Antigua-born former President of the UN General Assembly wants a judge to reduce his bail and let him out of jail so he can catch his son’s football games next month.
John Ashe, the former Antigua ambassador to the UN, is still prisoner number 72864-054 at the Metropolitan Correction Center in New York City. He has been there since his arrest on Oct. 6th on tax fraud charges related to alleged bribery.
But his new New Jersey lawyers last week filed a motion with the court asking for Ashe, 61, to have his bond signed by just three people instead of five so he can get out and watch his youngest son’s championship football games for the 2015 season, which begins on October 31st.
The disgraced United Nations bigwig, who was busted for accepting $1.3 million in bribes to buy Rolex watches and build a basketball court at his home, also wants the judge to lower the number of “financially responsible people” needed to sign off on his release from five to three.
So far he has put up a $1 million bond but hasn’t been able to round up the five “financially responsible people” needed to buy him his get out of jail free card.
His lawyer, Hervé Gouraige, also said in court papers that “Ambassador Ashe has a medical condition that requires four different medications, and is currently experiencing headaches that he believes are caused by the substitute medications provided at the MCC.” Since after his arrest, Gouraige, said his client was not permitted to take his prescribed medications.
They also claim “Ashe has worked too hard to establish his reputation to now ruin it by fleeing instead of facing the current charges.”
Ashe allegedly took the bribes to help a Chinese billionaire try to land a “multi-billion-dollar, UN-sponsored conference center in Macau,” court papers state.
Ashe, a former ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, spent $59,000 of the dough on hand-tailored Hong Kong suits, $69,000 for a membership in a South Carolina vacation club, $54,000 on two Rolex watches, $40,000 to lease a BMW X5 and $5,000 on Gucci goodies, according to court papers.
Bond has been set at $1,000,000 personal recognizance, secured by $500,000 in cash/property and five FRPs and surrender of travel documents; home detention with travel restricted to the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and electronic monitoring.
A judge has yet to rule on the motion.
