Ting faces up to 20 years in prison.

Due to difficulties bringing Ting back to Hong Kong from where he fled for five years, and the lack of company documentary evidence available, he was charged with just two counts of false accounting involving around HK$330 million.

The jury voted by a seven-to-one margin to convict Ting after a trial lasting nearly two months. Sentencing by Judge Clare-Marie Beeson will follow.

The Semi-Tech saga is unlikely to end with Ting's conviction.

Asked outside court whether more charges would follow, prosecuting barrister Thomas Iu said: ''This is only chapter one.''

Neither he nor police investigators would elaborate, but questions remain as to the role of other Semi-Tech directors, who have refused to testify, and accounting firm Ernst & Young, which audited Semi-Tech's books.

Ting, who controlled 44 percent of the voting shares in the consumer electronics and sewing machine maker, was a 1990s high-flyer, famed for his ability to turn around ailing companies, by reviving faded brands and moving production to low-cost countries.

The group resurrected Japanese electronics makers Akai and Sansui before running into trouble after its acquisition of the venerable Singer Sewing Machine Co of the United States.

After Semi-Tech's collapse in 2000, virtually all that remained of Akai was US$1.72 billion in debt, though at its peak in 1996 the company manufactured six million television sets a year.

While police and liquidators pored over the accounts of listed investment arm Akai Holdings, Ting remained beyond their reach in the mainland.

He returned to face charges in 2003, but it took years to bring the case to trial because documents had disappeared along with the assets. Just last month the court ordered Ting to hand over documents relating to Akai Holdings and Kong Wah Holdings, which, through its 35 percent holding in Shenzhen-listed Konka Group, was once the largest TV maker in Asia outside of Japan.

The two charges related to statements in the audited accounts of Semi-Tech (Global) for the year ended January 31, 1999. Ting was accused of dishonestly making or dishonestly falsifying documents made for the accounts.

The charges read out to the court stated that he made or concurred in entries which falsely purported to show that Semi-Tech held a 50 percent interest in MicroMain Systems worth HK$300 million, and other shares in MicroMain worth HK$38.46 million.

The false accounting was alleged to be aimed at staving off action that would otherwise have been available to creditors. Testimony from six banks stated that had the banks known the accounts were falsified they would have taken steps to recover loans made to the Semi-Tech group.

Ting's defense lawyer, senior counsel Lawrence Lok, complained in vain that such evidence from the banks is inadmissible under the Theft Ordinance because the accounts did not directly cause them financial loss.

Liquidators will be hopeful following Ting's conviction. He refused to cooperate with them while under criminal investigation, despite a court order for him to do so. Ting told the court last Monday: ``I wanted to protect myself against anything which might affect the criminal charge.

``I have told the liquidators that I will see them as soon as this case is over.'' daniel.hilken@singtaonewscorp.com