Five charged by ICAC for swindling HK$28.4m from investors and money laundering

Three former managers at Standard Chartered Bank, a self-employed financial consultant and an estate firm manager were charged for defrauding investors of 400 million yen (about HK$28.4 million) and money laundering.

Four of the defendants, Woo Man-ho, 34, Chan Tak-ching, 34, and Leung Ho-yin, 35, were former relationship managers of Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong). Law Man-fai, 48, was a self-employed financial consultant. They faced seven counts of conspiracy to defraud.

They were charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption with conspiring with four foreigners to deceive Japanese investors to invest in a number of companies that claimed to take part in investment projects in Africa.

A co-defendant Catherine Kum Kit-ching, 53, manager of ADF Capital Limited, is charged with conspiracy to launder about HK$55 million.

All defendants were released on ICAC bail before appearing in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. At the material time, Woo, Chan and Leung were relationship managers of Standard Chartered Bank.

The bank would issue documents to confirm the balance of a client’s account upon request, but the trio was not authorized to sign and issue those documents.

Kum was a manager of ADF which held accounts with Standard Chartered Bank, while Law was a self-employed financial consultant.

From January 2015 to January 2019, the defendants had allegedly conspired with four outside of Hong Kong to defraud various Japanese investors to invest in ADF and other companies by using false documents.

Those documents involved proof of fund letters and corporate refund promissory notes, purportedly issued by Standard Chartered Bank and signed by Woo and Chan.

The four foreigners included a Zambian man and a Korean man, both shareholders-cum-directors of ADF; a Thai man, an account holder of Standard Chartered Bank and Chan’s client; and a Japanese woman, who was a company director.

Four of the charges alleged that Woo conspired with Chan, Law, the Thai man, the Zambian man and the Japanese woman, claimed that Standard Chartered Bank was holding on behalf of the Thai man's asset of €3.3 billion (about HK$25.5 billion), which was assigned to ADF to finance and execute economic and humanitarian projects in Africa.

They also claimed that the bank confirmed that a company of the Zambian man had funds of US$1.5 billion (about HK$11.6 billion) available for investments in Africa, and that company had assets of US$2 billion (about HK$15.5 billion) in the account held with the bank.

ICAC revealed that Standard Chartered Bank had never held such an asset on behalf of the Thai man, while the Zambian man’s company had never held any bank account with the bank.

The false representations were found to involve also the issuance of false proof of fund letters.

Three other charges alleged that Woo and Chan conspired with Leung, Law, the Zambian man, the Korean man and the Japanese woman, claimed by eight corporate refund promissory notes that Standard Chartered Bank was the guarantor of ADF, which would pay relevant investors.

The eight notes involved promised returns totaling over US$207 million (about HK$1.6 billion).

As a result, various Japanese investors were deceived into making investments totaling at least JPY400 million (about HK$28.4 million) to ADF and those companies involved.

The remaining charge alleged that Kum conspired together with the Zambian man and the Korean man to deal with a total sum of over HK$7.3 million and over US$6.1 million (about HK$47.5 million) in an account in another bank, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that the sum, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly represented the proceeds of an indictable offense.

As the investigation is continuing, the ICAC said it does not rule out further law enforcement actions.