By Janon Fisher
Special to DNAinfo
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A Manhattan woman has made a bizarre plea to a judge, asking him to agree that she doesn't own a $1 million Lincoln Center apartment in a bid to save her dad from execution in China.
Kristina Pi, 33, has been trying to rescue her father, Pi Qiansheng — a former top communist official who was sentenced to death for taking $1.13 million while he served in the municipal government of Tianjin, in northern China, according to reports.
Qiansheng's execution has been stayed until 2012.
Prosecutors in the People’s Republic claim that as part of Qiansheng's corruption, a multinational company gave his daughter an apartment on the 21st floor of the Grand Millennium at 1965 Broadway.
Apartments in the ritzy building cost as much as $6 million for a four bedroom unit, according to City Realty.com. One bedroom apartments are listed for more than $1 million.
Pi, who reportedly worked for Citibank, was also investigated by Chinese officials, but was not convicted.
She argues in court papers that she never owned the high-end property, instead renting it for a year in 2001 and again from August 2003 to September 2006.
She filed a lawsuit against Kan Chen, a Canadian man who is listed in city records as the property's owner. But Pi's lawsuit isn't seeking any money, just a ruling by the judge overseeing the case that Pi is not and never has been the condo’s owner, according to court papers.
"She is hopeful that such a determination will help exonerate her father from the erroneous charges in the People's Republic of China which have resulted in a death sentence imposed upon him by the Intermediate People's Court," her lawyer Edward Curtin said in court papers.
According to City Realty, the mixed-use hotel and residential high rise building expanded in 1997. It took over the former Chinese Mission to the UN next door at Broadway West 66th Street, and built the new Chinese Mission in its current location at First Avenue and East 35th Street.
