Five people have been sentenced to prison terms of up to 54 months over a cross-border investment fraud that deceived Japanese investors into putting more than 400 million yen, or about HK$28.4 million, into various companies.
Three defendants were sentenced on Monday, while two former relationship managers at Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Woo Man-ho and Chan Tak-ching, had previously each been jailed for three years over their roles in the scheme.
Those sentenced on Monday included Leung Ho-yin, a former Standard Chartered relationship manager, and Law Man-fai, a self-employed financial consultant.
Both had earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud.
Co-defendant Catherine Kum Kit-ching, a manager at ADF Capital Limited, had previously been convicted after trial of conspiracy to deal with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offense.
The court heard that between January 2015 and September 2016, Woo, Chan, Leung and Law used false documents purportedly issued by Standard Chartered to induce Japanese investors to invest in ADF and several other companies.
The documents falsely stated that Standard Chartered guaranteed ADF’s financial obligations and that foreign nationals involved in the scheme held assets worth more than HK$37 billion.
Some of the documents were signed by Woo and Chan.
The false representations led Japanese investors to put more than 400 million yen into the companies.
The investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption also found that Kum conspired with a Zambian man and a Korean man, both shareholders and directors of ADF, to launder about HK$55 million in crime proceeds through a bank account.
In sentencing, Deputy Judge May Chung Ming-sun described the case as a sophisticated fraud involving overseas investors and a substantial amount of money.
She said the seriousness of the offenses had implications for Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial center.
Kum was sentenced to 54 months in prison.
The judge adopted a starting point of 68 months for Leung and Law before reducing their sentences to 45 months and 33 months respectively, taking into account their guilty pleas and, in Law’s case, his assistance to the prosecution.
The ICAC has also obtained arrest warrants for three other people linked to the case, including two ADF shareholder-directors and a Japanese woman who served as the chief executive of a company.
