John W. Ashe, the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, was among six people charged in the U.S. of taking in $1.3 million in bribes from Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng.

The charge came from a probe into Ng, a real estate mogul form Macau. Ng was arrested by customs officials in New York last month and charged with bringing $4.5 million into the U.S. under false pretenses.

New York prosecutors said John Ashe "accepted over $500,000" from Ng who was "seeking to build a multi-billion dollar, UN-sponsored conference center in Macau." In exchange for the payments from Ng, Ashe submitted a request to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "which claimed that there was a purported need to build the UN Macau Conference Center," according to the document released.

A following $800,000 in bribes from Ng was also taken in by Ashe to advance their interests at the United Nations and with the Antigua government including with the prime minister who got a cut of the bribe money, the documents said.

Ashe has served as UN ambassador for Antigua until November 2014.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said through his spokesman earlier today that he was “shocked and deeply saddened” at the accusations of corruption.