Integrity Focus

The ICAC today (May 17) charged a former employee of a property management company for allegedly accepting bribes totalling $1.3 million from a renovation works contractor for showing favour to the latter while his wife was charged with laundering crime proceeds totalling over $4.9 million.

Mak Wing-chun, 49, former property officer of the leasing department of New Estate Company Limited (NEC), faces four counts of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO).

Co-defendant Lee Shing-kan, 75, sole proprietor of Art Land Decoration Co. (Art Land), faces four counts of offering an advantage to an agent, contrary to section 9(2)(b) of the POBO.

Mak’s wife Rosetta Kwok Yuen-shan, 47, solicitor, faces five counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.

The trio were released on ICAC bail, pending their appearance at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts next Tuesday (May 21) for mention. The prosecution will later apply to transfer the case to the District Court for plea.

In 2008, Mak joined NEC, which owned and managed a portfolio of properties in Hong Kong for lease. At the material time, Mak was a property officer of its leasing department. He was responsible for arranging and overseeing contractors to conduct renovation works at NEC’s properties and certifying completion of the works before releasing payments to contractors.

Between November 2020 and June 2022, NEC only awarded renovation works to two contractors. During the period, Art Land solely owned by Lee was released works payments totalling about $26 million.

Mak, who arranged and oversaw the renovation works to Art Land, allegedly accepted various bribes totalling $1.3 million from Lee between April and June 2022. Meanwhile, Lee allegedly offered the bribes to Mak for showing favour to Art Land in relation to the arrangement and overseeing of renovation works.

The bribery offences were revealed in an investigation by the ICAC stemmed from a corruption complaint.

ICAC enquiries also revealed that between January 2019 and July 2022, Mak’s wife Kwok allegedly laundered crime proceeds totalling over $4.9 million through five bank accounts.

NEC has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.