A General Manager of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation's (KCRC) Property Division, charged by the ICAC for his alleged role in an illegal kickback scam to the tune of $2.5 million, appeared in Eastern Court today (Friday) to face 16 charges.

Cheung King-fung, 44, earlier faced one holding charge of conspiring with an architectural consultant for Cheung to accept advantages for Cheung to facilitate the awarding of term consultancy contracts to the consultant.

The court today ordered this charge be left on file and replaced by 14 new corruption charges.

The charges alleged Cheung of accepting $2,540,000 in total as rewards for awarding term consultancy contracts to Kwan and Associates Architects Limited between August 1998 and August 1999.

Two other additional charges alleged him of forging nine service orders in November 1998, and conspiracy to defraud KCRC.

He was accused of conspiring with Nicholas Delisle Burns to defraud KCRC, between January and March 1999, by dishonestly submitting fictitious quotations for term consultancy fees so that KCRC was deceived into awarding term consultancy contracts.

Magistrate Mr Ian Candy adjourned the case to March 24, 2000 for plea at District Court. The defendant was allowed bail of $200,000 in cash, and was ordered to surrender his travel documents and not to leave Hong Kong.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Leung Lee-shing.