'Small-house king,' partner charged in $1b fraud case

Edward Wong Kwong-wing, known as the "small-house king," and district councillor Ching Chan-ming have been charged for conspiracy to defraud the Lands Department over a Yuen Long small-house estate development project.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said Wong's company, Wing Smart Construction, allegedly received more than HK$1 billion for the sale of 115 homes in the private estate over 14 years between 2005 and 2019.

Wong, 72, a solicitor who is the operator of Wing Smart, and Ching, 65, a Yuen Long district councillor and an indigenous inhabitant representative of Shui Tsiu San Tsuen, jointly face one count of conspiracy to defraud.

They appeared at the Eastern Magistrates' Courts yesterday before magistrate Leung Ka-kie for mention. They did not enter a plea.

Leung adjourned the case to July 25 to allow the prosecution to further investigate and seek legal advice.

Wong was granted a bail of HK$500,000 and Ching HK$200,000. They are not allowed to leave Hong Kong and need to surrender their travel documents. They are also required to reside at a stated address and report to a police station twice a month. They cannot approach witnesses for the prosecution.

The anti-corruption watchdog alleged that Ching started the development of a small-house estate project in Shui Tsiu San Tsuen village in Yuen Long, by purchasing "ding rights" from indigenous inhabitants around 1996. According to New Territories Small-House Policy, every male indigenous inhabitant of the village aged 18 or above may exercise his "ding rights" once and apply to the Lands Department to build a small house at the village for his own occupation. The "ding rights" are not transferable.

In March 2005, Wing Smart entered into an agreement with Ching, appointing him as its trustee to jointly develop the small-house project.

Ching then continued to purchase more "ding rights" from indigenous inhabitants and arranged for them to apply for building licenses to construct small houses in Shui Tsiu San Tsuen.

They were accused of conspiring together and with other persons to defraud the Lands Department between May 2005 and May 2019, making false representations to induce the director of lands and his officers to act contrary to their public duty to grant building licenses to applicants, who applied for building licenses to build small houses under the New Territories Small-House Policy.

The ICAC said Wong and Ching had allegedly falsely represented that each of the applicants for building licenses was the sole legal and registered owner of the respective lot of land located at Shui Tsiu San Tsuen.

It alleged the two falsely represented that the applicants had never entered into any agreement or arrangements with any person to transfer or otherwise deal with their respective lots of land or any interest and that the applicants had never made and had no intention of making any private arrangements for their rights under the policy to be sold to another individual or a developer.

The ICAC said a number of small houses were built in Shui Tsiu San Tsuen and sold to members of the public at the market price ranging from HK$9 to HK$13 million each under the name of a private estate between 2005 and 2019.

sophie.hui@singtaonewscorp.com