A former senior executive at Hong Kong's Airport Authority (AAHK), currently serving a four-year prison sentence for corruption, has been ordered on Thursday by a court to surrender approximately HK$6 million in illicit earnings linked to the airport's massive third runway expansion.
The District Court handed down the confiscation order on Thursday, giving 51-year-old Ricky Lee Wing-fai six months to forfeit the funds, which include millions in bribe money.
If the former principal manager fails to pay the massive sum within the stipulated timeframe, he will face an additional forty-seven months behind bars on top of his current sentence.
Lee was jailed earlier in March after pleading guilty to conspiracy to accept advantages and multiple counts of money laundering.
Court documents revealed that between early 2017 and mid-2022, Lee abused his position managing various construction contracts for the Three-Runway System at Hong Kong International Airport.
During this period, he pocketed roughly HK$2.5 million in bribes from a reclamation works subcontractor in exchange for helping the firm secure contracts valued at more than HK$110 million.
In a separate scheme, he accepted an additional HK$800,000 from a sand supplier to ensure the company received lucrative purchase orders. Furthermore, Lee admitted to laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds generated by these corrupt dealings.
The financial penalty was initiated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which utilized its specialized asset recovery unit to pursue the forfeiture.
The corruption watchdog highlighted that the aggressive confiscation of illicit assets is a vital strategy in ensuring criminals do not financially benefit from bribery and related offenses.
The sprawling corruption scandal involves several other individuals connected to the airport project.
Three co-defendants face multiple bribery charges in related proceedings.
Two individuals tied to the subcontracting firm have either pleaded guilty or indicated their intention to do so, while a former general manager of the Airport Authority has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in September.
𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓
