"[3] The following year he partnered Rodney Adler to set up Asia Press Pty Ltd, which published Dan Viet, a Vietnamese language newspaper.
After his friend and council ally, Nick Lalich, approached Federal MP Ted Grace for Ngo to join Labor, Grace arranged a meeting with Senator Graham Richardson and Leo McLeay, Federal MP for Watson and Speaker of the House of Representatives.
[6] Newman suspected Ngo took part in criminal dealings due to his involvement with the Mekong Club, which many believed to be laundering money for the Cabramatta gangs.
According to former Cabramatta detective Tim Priest, Ngo had received a $117,000 cheque from Jin-Gou Chang of the Taipei Cultural Office in 1994.
Newman learned of the transaction and accused Ngo, Lalich and Khoshaba of accepting funding from the Taiwanese government and stated that they should not be re-elected to the council, a position for which he received considerable support.
[8] Ngo was furious and began openly approaching people who were not criminals for advice on acquiring guns and hiring a hitman.
Ngo's conflict with Newman and his close ties to Tran led to widespread rumours in the community that he was involved which were repeated by the media.
Ngo was arrested for Newman's murder on 13 March 1998, and following two mistrials, a Coronial Inquest, three Supreme Court trials and a Judicial Inquiry.
He was a prominent leader in the Vietnamese Catholic community, which held prayer services for him in the hope that he would be acquitted of the murder.
[12] In April 2005, China sponsored five Fairfield Council members to visit the country in order to improve the relationship that had deteriorated due to Ngo's support of Taiwan.
[13] An inquiry was launched into Ngo's conviction on 6 June 2008, by order of Chief Justice James Spigelman of the New South Wales Supreme Court.
The inquiry was overseen by former and Acting District Court judge, David Patten, and addressed several concerns raised as to the validity of the original conviction.
A former mayor and friend of Newman, Ken Chapman, claimed that this was unlikely to happen as Ngo had supporters on the council who had visited him in jail.