HONG KONG -- High-level support had been building in the United Nations for a multi-billion dollar Macau convention center project at the heart of a U.S. corruption investigation in the months before the case came to light.
A meeting in Macau in late August of some 200 delegates from 50 countries, including the prime minister of Dominica and several U.N. ambassadors, ended with an endorsement of the "creation of a permanent South-South Expo [Center] in Macau," according to the website of the U.N. Office for South-South Cooperation, which organized the event.