Billionaire Kwok Gets 5 Years Jail in Hong Kong Corruption Trial

Thomas Kwok, former co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai
Properties Ltd., left, arrives at the High Court in a prison
van in Hong Kong, China, on Dec. 22, 2014.
Thomas Kwok, the billionaire former Sun Hung Kai
Properties Ltd. co-chairman, was sentenced to five years in
jail and fined HK$500,000 ($64,460) for conspiring to
corrupt Hong Kong ’s No. 2 official.
Rafael Hui, 66, the city’s chief secretary from 2005 to 2007,
was sentenced to 7 1/2 years for five charges including
acceptance of HK$8.5 million from Kwok in exchange for
favorable treatment for Sun Hung Kai. Thomas Chan, a
former executive director of the company, was sentenced to
six years imprisonment, while Francis Kwan the fourth man
convicted of the conspiracy last week, got five years.
The city’s biggest graft trial ended last week with the nine-
member jury finding the four men guilty and Kwok stepping
down from the company he headed with his younger
brother Raymond Kwok since 2011. Raymond, who was
also a defendant in the case, was acquitted of all four
charges against him and continues as the sole chairman of
Sun Hung Kai, the world’s second-most valuable real
estate firm.
Thomas Kwok , who nodded his head as his sentencing was
translated to him, is also disqualified for five years as a
company director. Raymond was present in the
courtroom’s public gallery when his elder brother’s
sentence was delivered.
Sentencing is “particularly difficult when one is dealing with
otherwise decent men who are not young, but who have
committed serious offenses,” High Court Judge Andrew
Macrae said today.
Appeals Conviction
Thomas Kwok, 63, and Thomas Chan, 68, will be appealing
their convictions, Sun Hung Kai said in a statement late
Dec. 19 after the jury delivered the verdicts. Kwok was
acquitted of two other charges while Chan was found guilty
on both charges against him.
The charges against the five men were brought by the
Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC.
Thomas and Raymond Kwok were arrested on March 29,
2012, sparking the company’s biggest share plunge in 14
years.
Shares rose 2.2 percent yesterday, the most in 2 1/2
months, as they resumed trading for the first time since the
verdicts. They advanced 1.3 percent as of 11:55 a.m. local
time today.
Both brothers have a net worth of over $10.5 billion each,
ranking them among Asia ’s top 25 richest, according to the
Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The case is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region v
Rafael Hui, Thomas Kwok, Raymond Kwok, Thomas Chan
and Francis Kwan, HCCC98/2013, in Hong Kong’s High
Court.