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May 2021Ex-senior executive of aircraft management services company jailed for accepting HK$0.6m bribesA former senior executive of an aircraft management services company, charged by the ICAC, was today (May 12) sentenced to 34 months’ imprisonment after admitting at the District Court that he had accepted at least about HK$600,000 from a ground service provider for engaging the latter’s service and assisting it to recover outstanding service fees.Tham Chun-fung, 37, former deputy chief operating officer of Lily Jet (Hong Kong) Limited (Lily Jet), pleaded guilty to six charges – five of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO); and one of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the POBO and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Two other charges of conspiracy to furnish false information against the defendant were left on file at the District Court.In sentencing, Judge Mr Tam Sze-lok said corruption was a serious offence and the court had to mete out a deterrent sentence to curb it.The judge also ordered the defendant to pay about HK$600,000, which was equivalent to the total bribes the defendant accepted, as restitution to Lily Jet.The court heard that the defendant joined Lily Jet, which provided services to private aircraft owners, in October 2012 and was promoted to deputy chief operating officer in November 2017. He was responsible for engaging ground service providers for clients of Lily Jet and approving service payments to those service providers.In November 2016, Lily Jet entered into an agreement with Fastransit Aviation Service Limited (Fastransit) for providing ground services in Mainland airports to clients of Lily Jet. But Lily Jet could also engage other ground service providers for its clients.The court heard that the defendant had requested Fastransit to reduce its service fee. The sole director and shareholder of Fastransit in response offered to pay a commission to the defendant for each engagement of Fastransit’s service.Between May 19, 2017 and June 28, 2018, the defendant accepted a commission of about HK$176,000 and four other commissions totalling about US$55,000 (around HK$426,000) from the aforesaid Fastransit director. He stopped making any fee reduction request to Fastransit after receiving the five commissions totalling over HK$600,000.Lily Jet had engaged Fastransit for its service and paid the latter service fees totalling about HK$16 million between October 2016 and September 2018.The court also heard that in March 2018, a client of Lily Jet failed to settle service fees with Lily Jet and it affected Fastransit’s collection of the relevant service fees from Lily Jet.With the assistance of the defendant, Fastransit recovered the outstanding service payments from Lily Jet. The aforesaid Fastransit director thus agreed to offer about US$88,000 (about HK$680,000) to the defendant as commission for his assistance. The acceptance did not materialise after Lily Jet learned of the incident.Lily Jet prohibited its staff members from accepting any advantage in relation to the company’s affairs or business.Lily Jet had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Marcus Lee, assisted by ICAC officer Kelvin Cheung. 11
May 2021Ex-security supervisor of public housing estate and daughter charged with salary fraudThe ICAC today (May 11) charged a former security supervisor of a public housing estate and her daughter with conspiracy to defraud a property management company of salary payments by falsely representing that the daughter had worked as a security guard at the estate.Yang Mulan, 52, former security supervisor of Creative Property Services Consultants Limited (CPS); and Yang’s daughter Ko Wai-ling, 22, former security guard of CPS, jointly face one count of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.The defendants will appear in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday (May 13) for plea.The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent enquiries revealed the above alleged offence.At the material time, CPS was the management services provider of Sai Wan Estate, a public housing estate in Kennedy Town. Yang and her daughter Ko lived together at a unit in the estate.Since April 2015, Yang has been employed by CPS as a security supervisor. She was responsible for manpower arrangement of security guards at Sai Wan Estate. All security guards were required to record their attendance when reported on and off duty. Their attendance records countersigned by Yang would be submitted to CPS for calculation of monthly salaries.Through the introduction of Yang, Ko was employed by CPS as a full-time security guard deployed to the estate in late December 2019. At the same time Ko was a full-time waitress of a restaurant in Kennedy Town.The charge alleges that between December 20, 2019 and March 31, 2020, Ko and Yang conspired together to defraud CPS by dishonestly falsely representing to the company that Ko worked as its security guard in accordance with the terms of her contract of employment; and causing CPS to pay salaries to Ko.ICAC enquiries revealed that salary payments totalling about $37,000 were released to Ko during the aforesaid period.CPS has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday. 07
May 2021Ex-bank employee jailed for bribery over customer data for business toutingA then bank employee, charged by the ICAC, was today (May 7) sentenced to three weeks’ imprisonment at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts after pleading guilty to a bribery charge in relation to customer’s confidential information from another bank for business touting.Cheung Siu-lun, 33, former direct sales executive of China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited (CCB (Asia)), today pleaded guilty before Principal Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen to one count of conspiracy for agent to accept advantages, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.The court heard that at the material time, the defendant was a direct sales executive of CCB (Asia) and was responsible for promoting personal loan business of CCB (Asia). He came to know a direct sales executive of DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (DBS Bank) in around November 2016.It was agreed between the duo that the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive would refer a client of DBS Bank to the defendant for making a loan application with CCB (Asia). The defendant would in return pay the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive one per cent of the loan drawdown by the client as rebate.Based on the customer information provided by the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive, the defendant contacted the client of DBS Bank to tout for personal loan business and successfully procured a loan of $500,000 for the latter in CCB (Asia) in late November 2016.The court heard that the payment of the illegal rebate did not materialise as the defendant was arrested by the ICAC in early December 2016.DBS Bank did not allow its staff members to accept any advantage in relation to the bank’s affairs or business, or to divulge the bank’s confidential customer information to any unauthorised party.CCB (Asia) and DBS Bank had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Paggie Lee, assisted by ICAC officer Emily Cheung. 05
May 2021Five property agents charged with using false documents to deceive agencyThe ICAC yesterday (May 4) charged five property agents with using a false sale and purchase agreement and eight false tenancy agreements to mislead a property agency.Two branch managers of Midland Realty International Limited (Midland Realty)—Tam Chun-sing, 45, and Jim Ho-tai, 40; and three property agents of Midland Realty—Lam Chi-hang, 39, Lee Sung-fai, 56, and Huang Xuemei, 51; face a total of 10 charges.Tam and Lam jointly face three counts of conspiracy for agent to use document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Tam further faces four counts of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the POBO. Jim, Lee and Huang each faces a similar offence.The defendants will appear in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (May 6) for plea.The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent enquiries revealed the above alleged offences which took place between September 1, 2016 and June 29, 2018.Tam and Jim were respectively the branch manager of Cheung Fat branch and Villa Esplanada branch of Midland Realty. Lam was a downline agent of Tam, while Lee and Huang were under the supervision of Jim.Around the aforesaid period, the five defendants cooperated with other property agents of Midland Realty to procure a leasing and five sale and purchase transactions. According to Midland Realty’s policy, the five defendants were required to share the relevant commissions with those property agents.Certain clients of the abovementioned sale and purchase transactions agreed to pay additional commissions. It is alleged that the defendants had used a false sale and purchase agreement and eight tenancy agreements of monthly rents totalling over $320,000 to deceive Midland Realty so as to avoid sharing the additional commissions with those property agents.Three of the charges allege that Tam and Lam conspired together to use three provisional tenancy agreements and other relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that Lam had procured three tenancy agreements in relation to three properties in Ma Wan, to mislead Midland Realty.Six other charges allege that Tam, Jim, Huang and Lee used five other provisional tenancy agreements and relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that Tam and his wife, who was also his downline agent, Huang and Lee had procured five tenancy agreements in relation to two of the said properties in Ma Wan and three properties in Tsing Yi, to mislead Midland Realty.The remaining charge alleges that Tam used a provisional sale and purchase agreement and relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that the commission paid by a vendor in the sale and purchase transaction of one of the aforesaid Tsing Yi properties was only $77,000, to mislead Midland Realty.Midland Realty has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday. 04
May 2021Cleaning services provider admits bribing garbage truck driverA cleaning services provider of a private residential building, charged by the ICAC, today (May 4) admitted at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts that he had offered bribes to a garbage truck driver for collecting additional garbage.Sze Pui-yeung, 62, self-employed cleaning services provider, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to offer advantages to an agent, contrary to Section 9(2)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Principal Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen adjourned the case to May 21 for sentence, pending background and community service order reports. The defendant was granted cash bail.The court heard that in 2012, the defendant was engaged by a private residential building in Chai Wan to provide cleaning and garbage disposal services. He further engaged Kan Kee Cleaning Services Company Limited (Kan Kee) to send a garbage truck to collect garbage from the building every night. According to the agreement, Kan Kee was required to collect about 15 bags of garbage every day. Should there be additional garbage, the defendant would pay Kan Kee additional service fee.About mid-2017, the defendant began to provide garbage disposal services for another premises adjacent to the building. Without informing Kan Kee, the defendant put around 10 bags of garbage collected from that premises at the building every night. But it was found out by a driver of Kan Kee.Between June 2017 and February 2018, the defendant offered bribes totalling about $7,600 to the driver of Kan Kee for disposing of those additional garbage for him.Kan Kee had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Chin Sing-yue.
May 2021Ex-senior executive of aircraft management services company jailed for accepting HK$0.6m bribesA former senior executive of an aircraft management services company, charged by the ICAC, was today (May 12) sentenced to 34 months’ imprisonment after admitting at the District Court that he had accepted at least about HK$600,000 from a ground service provider for engaging the latter’s service and assisting it to recover outstanding service fees.Tham Chun-fung, 37, former deputy chief operating officer of Lily Jet (Hong Kong) Limited (Lily Jet), pleaded guilty to six charges – five of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO); and one of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the POBO and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Two other charges of conspiracy to furnish false information against the defendant were left on file at the District Court.In sentencing, Judge Mr Tam Sze-lok said corruption was a serious offence and the court had to mete out a deterrent sentence to curb it.The judge also ordered the defendant to pay about HK$600,000, which was equivalent to the total bribes the defendant accepted, as restitution to Lily Jet.The court heard that the defendant joined Lily Jet, which provided services to private aircraft owners, in October 2012 and was promoted to deputy chief operating officer in November 2017. He was responsible for engaging ground service providers for clients of Lily Jet and approving service payments to those service providers.In November 2016, Lily Jet entered into an agreement with Fastransit Aviation Service Limited (Fastransit) for providing ground services in Mainland airports to clients of Lily Jet. But Lily Jet could also engage other ground service providers for its clients.The court heard that the defendant had requested Fastransit to reduce its service fee. The sole director and shareholder of Fastransit in response offered to pay a commission to the defendant for each engagement of Fastransit’s service.Between May 19, 2017 and June 28, 2018, the defendant accepted a commission of about HK$176,000 and four other commissions totalling about US$55,000 (around HK$426,000) from the aforesaid Fastransit director. He stopped making any fee reduction request to Fastransit after receiving the five commissions totalling over HK$600,000.Lily Jet had engaged Fastransit for its service and paid the latter service fees totalling about HK$16 million between October 2016 and September 2018.The court also heard that in March 2018, a client of Lily Jet failed to settle service fees with Lily Jet and it affected Fastransit’s collection of the relevant service fees from Lily Jet.With the assistance of the defendant, Fastransit recovered the outstanding service payments from Lily Jet. The aforesaid Fastransit director thus agreed to offer about US$88,000 (about HK$680,000) to the defendant as commission for his assistance. The acceptance did not materialise after Lily Jet learned of the incident.Lily Jet prohibited its staff members from accepting any advantage in relation to the company’s affairs or business.Lily Jet had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Marcus Lee, assisted by ICAC officer Kelvin Cheung. 11
May 2021Ex-security supervisor of public housing estate and daughter charged with salary fraudThe ICAC today (May 11) charged a former security supervisor of a public housing estate and her daughter with conspiracy to defraud a property management company of salary payments by falsely representing that the daughter had worked as a security guard at the estate.Yang Mulan, 52, former security supervisor of Creative Property Services Consultants Limited (CPS); and Yang’s daughter Ko Wai-ling, 22, former security guard of CPS, jointly face one count of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.The defendants will appear in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday (May 13) for plea.The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent enquiries revealed the above alleged offence.At the material time, CPS was the management services provider of Sai Wan Estate, a public housing estate in Kennedy Town. Yang and her daughter Ko lived together at a unit in the estate.Since April 2015, Yang has been employed by CPS as a security supervisor. She was responsible for manpower arrangement of security guards at Sai Wan Estate. All security guards were required to record their attendance when reported on and off duty. Their attendance records countersigned by Yang would be submitted to CPS for calculation of monthly salaries.Through the introduction of Yang, Ko was employed by CPS as a full-time security guard deployed to the estate in late December 2019. At the same time Ko was a full-time waitress of a restaurant in Kennedy Town.The charge alleges that between December 20, 2019 and March 31, 2020, Ko and Yang conspired together to defraud CPS by dishonestly falsely representing to the company that Ko worked as its security guard in accordance with the terms of her contract of employment; and causing CPS to pay salaries to Ko.ICAC enquiries revealed that salary payments totalling about $37,000 were released to Ko during the aforesaid period.CPS has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday. 07
May 2021Ex-bank employee jailed for bribery over customer data for business toutingA then bank employee, charged by the ICAC, was today (May 7) sentenced to three weeks’ imprisonment at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts after pleading guilty to a bribery charge in relation to customer’s confidential information from another bank for business touting.Cheung Siu-lun, 33, former direct sales executive of China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited (CCB (Asia)), today pleaded guilty before Principal Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen to one count of conspiracy for agent to accept advantages, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.The court heard that at the material time, the defendant was a direct sales executive of CCB (Asia) and was responsible for promoting personal loan business of CCB (Asia). He came to know a direct sales executive of DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (DBS Bank) in around November 2016.It was agreed between the duo that the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive would refer a client of DBS Bank to the defendant for making a loan application with CCB (Asia). The defendant would in return pay the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive one per cent of the loan drawdown by the client as rebate.Based on the customer information provided by the DBS Bank’s direct sales executive, the defendant contacted the client of DBS Bank to tout for personal loan business and successfully procured a loan of $500,000 for the latter in CCB (Asia) in late November 2016.The court heard that the payment of the illegal rebate did not materialise as the defendant was arrested by the ICAC in early December 2016.DBS Bank did not allow its staff members to accept any advantage in relation to the bank’s affairs or business, or to divulge the bank’s confidential customer information to any unauthorised party.CCB (Asia) and DBS Bank had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Paggie Lee, assisted by ICAC officer Emily Cheung. 05
May 2021Five property agents charged with using false documents to deceive agencyThe ICAC yesterday (May 4) charged five property agents with using a false sale and purchase agreement and eight false tenancy agreements to mislead a property agency.Two branch managers of Midland Realty International Limited (Midland Realty)—Tam Chun-sing, 45, and Jim Ho-tai, 40; and three property agents of Midland Realty—Lam Chi-hang, 39, Lee Sung-fai, 56, and Huang Xuemei, 51; face a total of 10 charges.Tam and Lam jointly face three counts of conspiracy for agent to use document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Tam further faces four counts of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of the POBO. Jim, Lee and Huang each faces a similar offence.The defendants will appear in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (May 6) for plea.The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Subsequent enquiries revealed the above alleged offences which took place between September 1, 2016 and June 29, 2018.Tam and Jim were respectively the branch manager of Cheung Fat branch and Villa Esplanada branch of Midland Realty. Lam was a downline agent of Tam, while Lee and Huang were under the supervision of Jim.Around the aforesaid period, the five defendants cooperated with other property agents of Midland Realty to procure a leasing and five sale and purchase transactions. According to Midland Realty’s policy, the five defendants were required to share the relevant commissions with those property agents.Certain clients of the abovementioned sale and purchase transactions agreed to pay additional commissions. It is alleged that the defendants had used a false sale and purchase agreement and eight tenancy agreements of monthly rents totalling over $320,000 to deceive Midland Realty so as to avoid sharing the additional commissions with those property agents.Three of the charges allege that Tam and Lam conspired together to use three provisional tenancy agreements and other relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that Lam had procured three tenancy agreements in relation to three properties in Ma Wan, to mislead Midland Realty.Six other charges allege that Tam, Jim, Huang and Lee used five other provisional tenancy agreements and relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that Tam and his wife, who was also his downline agent, Huang and Lee had procured five tenancy agreements in relation to two of the said properties in Ma Wan and three properties in Tsing Yi, to mislead Midland Realty.The remaining charge alleges that Tam used a provisional sale and purchase agreement and relevant documents, which contained false or erroneous statements that the commission paid by a vendor in the sale and purchase transaction of one of the aforesaid Tsing Yi properties was only $77,000, to mislead Midland Realty.Midland Realty has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearance on Thursday. 04
May 2021Cleaning services provider admits bribing garbage truck driverA cleaning services provider of a private residential building, charged by the ICAC, today (May 4) admitted at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts that he had offered bribes to a garbage truck driver for collecting additional garbage.Sze Pui-yeung, 62, self-employed cleaning services provider, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to offer advantages to an agent, contrary to Section 9(2)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.Principal Magistrate Mr Peter Law Tak-chuen adjourned the case to May 21 for sentence, pending background and community service order reports. The defendant was granted cash bail.The court heard that in 2012, the defendant was engaged by a private residential building in Chai Wan to provide cleaning and garbage disposal services. He further engaged Kan Kee Cleaning Services Company Limited (Kan Kee) to send a garbage truck to collect garbage from the building every night. According to the agreement, Kan Kee was required to collect about 15 bags of garbage every day. Should there be additional garbage, the defendant would pay Kan Kee additional service fee.About mid-2017, the defendant began to provide garbage disposal services for another premises adjacent to the building. Without informing Kan Kee, the defendant put around 10 bags of garbage collected from that premises at the building every night. But it was found out by a driver of Kan Kee.Between June 2017 and February 2018, the defendant offered bribes totalling about $7,600 to the driver of Kan Kee for disposing of those additional garbage for him.Kan Kee had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Chin Sing-yue.