Integrity Focus

The ICAC had earlier charged a then property manager of a property management company and his wife for allegedly stealing minor works payments of a public housing estate totalling over $530,000. The duo, appearing at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts for mention today (March 4), were laid with three additional charges of theft and two of money-laundering involving over $11 million in relation a public housing estate and two Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) estates.

Lee Ho-yin, 45, former regional manager of Easy Living Consultant Limited (Easy Living), and his wife Bianca Ho Sin-wan, 43, were earlier charged with one count of theft, contrary to Section 9 of the Theft Ordinance.

Magistrate Mr Philip Chan Chee-fai today allowed the prosecution’s application to amend the indictment. Lee currently faced four counts of theft while Ho faced two counts of dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to Section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.

No plea was entered today. The magistrate adjourned their case to May 27 for mention and granted bail to the duo.

At the material time, Easy Living provided property management services to Lower Wong Tai Sin (2) Estate, a public housing estate, and two HOS estates in Yau Tong, namely Ko Cheung Court and Yau Mei Court. Lee was originally a senior property manager of Easy Living posted to Lower Wong Tai Sin (2) Estate. After he was promoted to regional manager in mid-2021, he was also in charge of the services provided to Ko Cheung Court and Yau Mei Court.

Easy Living operated various bank accounts for settling maintenance works and recurring expenses for the three estates. To withdraw funds less than $60,000 from those bank accounts, joint signatures of two authorised signatories of the company were required. Lee was one of the authorised signatories.

The four theft charges alleged that between May 2019 and May 2022, Lee stole sums totalling over $11 million from those bank accounts.

The remaining two charges alleged that during the same period, Ho dealt with two sums totalling about $7.7 million, knowing or believing that they represented proceeds of indictable offence.

The ICAC investigation stemmed from a corruption complaint concerning the above works payments. Enquiries revealed that during the abovementioned period, Lee caused Easy Living to issue 319 cheques to settle various minor works payments of the three estates by fraudulent means. Cheques in the sum ranging from about $1,900 to $58,000 each were eventually deposited into the personal bank accounts of the couple.

The Housing Department and Easy Living had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Winnie Fung.

The ICAC attaches great importance to the ethical standard of the property management sector. Through the Programme on Professional Property Management with Integrity, the ICAC provides integrity training with diversified anti-corruption training materials to the practitioners. To further enhance the corruption prevention capabilities of the sector, the ICAC has recently launched the Corruption Prevention Guide for Property Management Companies to assist property management companies in strengthening their internal control measures for managing corruption risks, including financial and account management. All information is available at the Integrity and Quality Building Management website.