HK tycoon Joseph Lau found guilty of bribing top official
Print Edition
HONG Kong billionaire Joseph Lau was found guilty yesterday of bribing a disgraced former government official in the gambling enclave of Macau in an attempt to purchase a prime development site in the Chinese city.
Lau, 62, a real estate tycoon worth US$8.4 billion according to the Forbes rich list, was found guilty along with co-accused Steven Lo of offering former Macau transport and public works chief Ao Man-long a US$2.58 million bribe for the acquisition of land near the airport in 2005, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.
Ao is currently serving 29 years in jail for a catalogue of corruption offences, and the activities of Lau and his partner Lo, who owns Hong Kong’s South China football club, first came to light during his trial in 2012, the newspaper said.
Lau’s Chinese Estates Holdings is building an upmarket residential property on the site called La Scala, and says it has invested more than US$2.5 billion in its construction and design.
Macau’s Court of First Instance sentenced Lau and Lo to five years and three months imprisonment each, the Post reported, though neither man was in court and they will be unlikely to serve time as Hong Kong and Macau do not have an extradition agreement.
Both men have said poor health had prevented them from appearing at different times during the trial, which began last year.
“The doctor said (Lo) has to rest in bed for at least two days,” Lo's lawyer Jorge Neto Valente said yesterday.
And lawyers for both defendants said they would fight the court’s ruling. “We are prepared to appeal against this decision,” Valente told reporters after the hearing.
The guilty verdict also comes as a blow to the credibility of Hong Kong’s business elites, which have been rocked by the corruption allegations against the Kwok brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city’s biggest property developer.
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