Ex-vice president of secretarial company charged with taking $67,000 in bribes to divert clients to rival firm

A former vice president of a Hong Kong secretarial company on Monday has been charged with accepting over HK$67,000 in bribes to secretly refer three clients to a competitor, along with fraud offenses.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption today charged 59-year-old Betty So Shuk-yi, former vice president of SWCS Corporate Services Group (Hong Kong) Limited, with six counts of accepting an advantage as an agent and two counts of fraud.

Between March 2021 and December 2023, So allegedly accepted bribes totaling more than HK$67,000 from a director of rival firm R&T Corporate Services Limited. In return, she secretly diverted three SWCS clients and contracts worth about HK$400,000 to R&T for services including internal control review reports, annual report drafting, and notarization with apostille.

The fraud charges relate to one client, where So allegedly falsely told them SWCS could not provide the services, then induced them to hire R&T instead for a total of HK$30,000.

So was released on ICAC bail and is due to appear at Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Wednesday.