'Yellow' cafeboss under fire

Former partners of famous "yellow restaurant chain" Lung Mun Cafe have hit out at its boss, questioning his business integrity and whether he is genuine in wanting to help youngsters, Eastweek magazine reported.

The 40-year-old owner, Cheung Chun-kit, operates seven cafe outlets across the SAR, and is well known for his support of anti-fugitive bill protesters.

To, who worked with Cheung on selling more than 48,000 of Lunar New Year festive staples like lo bak gou and wu tau gou, alleged that HK$2.5 million in sales proceeds, which was supposed to be donated to a fund supporting protesters charged with rioting, cannot be traced.

She alleged that many customers who paid online did not get them since a large portion of the gou were despatched to the cafe's outlets and the Lunar New Year fair for sale instead.

"No one has told me how many offline orders were taken and the revenue received, as the gou must be ordered online. It is not known whether customers who didn't get the gou have been refunded," To said.

A similar situation allegedly transpired with Sara, a bakery owner who was invited by Cheung to collaborate on selling her cookies online and who claimed to have suffered over HK$400,000 in losses after Cheung refused to pay her for producing extra cookies to meet additional orders.

She said she was forced to make 1,000 extra boxes of cookies, as there were more customers with order receipts than the number of orders Cheung claimed to have received.

Later on, she realized some of her products had been sold at Lung Mun Cafe outlets and Lunar New Year fair as well.

Another alleged victim was Chan Sing, who was asked to teach youngsters to make mini-flower plaques to sell.

He alleged a portion of the money in the donation box went missing.

Cheung "told me that a total of 60 flower plaques were sold, with HK$12,500 in the donation box, but I was suspicious, as I had seen customers [of the cafe outlets] donate HK$500 to HK$1,000 each for the products," Chan said.

"How is it that the total donations amounted to so little?"

Chan also alleged Cheung had stiffed him out of HK$200,000 in orders after asking him to produce 2,000 lion dolls for sale at Lung Mun Cafe outlets.

Cheung later purchased similar products online in the hopes of maximizing his own profit, Chan claimed, raising questions over whether he was profiteering off of youngsters.