Ex-assistant to Chinese billionaire gets 7 months in prison

NEW YORK – The former assistant to a Chinese billionaire has been sentenced to seven months in prison on a tax charge stemming from a United Nations bribery case.

Jeff C. Yin was sentenced Wednesday by Manhattan federal Judge Vernon Broderick.

Prosecutors said Yin failed to pay taxes on his $54,000 salary for two years. He apologized at sentencing.

Yin was chief assistant to a Chinese billionaire when both were arrested in September 2015. The billionaire, Ng Lap Seng (ihng-LAP’-sihng), is awaiting sentencing after his conviction for paying bribes to U.N. officials.

Yin’s attorney, Assistant Federal Defender Sabrina Schroff, urged the judge to let Yin serve the sentence at a halfway house rather than a prison. Broderick asked both sides to submit arguments and said he’ll rule later on the request.