Three engineers jailed for $1m hotel kickback scam
2000-8-11
The District Court today (Friday) meted out prison terms to three engineers formerly employed by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (Mandarin Group) for taking over $1.1 million in illegal kickbacks to award $5 million worth of hotel contracts.
Chan Chun-man, 40, former group engineering manager of Mandarin Group, received a three-and-a-half-year jail term; while Wong Kok-mun, 59 and Jue Ving-kung, 58, respectively former chief engineer and former assistant chief engineer of Excelsior Hotel, wer e each jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Judge Donald Christie also ordered the defendants to return the bribe money, totallling $1,114,880, to the two hotels.
The defendants were earlier found guilty on a total of five counts of conspiracy to accept advantages between 1995 and 1997 under Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
The charges alleged the defendants, while being employed by Mandarin Group, of conspiring to accept $1,114,880 in total from Fung Yin-tak, proprietor of Karson Building Services & Engineering Company (Karson), for awarding decoration and maintenance contr acts by the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong Limited (Mandarin Oriental) and Excelsior Hotel (Hong Kong) Limited (Excelsior).
Tam Chiu-yuen, the then Group Engineering Manager of Mandarin Group, was the alleged mastermind of the scam. Tam left Hong Kong in 1997 and a warrant was issued by the court for his arrest.
Both Mandarin Oriental and Excelsior are affiliated companies of Mandarin Group.
The court heard that in 1991, Tam instructed Fung to inflate all Karson's quotations to the Mandarin Oriental and the Excelsior by 10 percent in general as “commissions”, which Tam would share with Chan, who was then chief engineering of Mandarin Oriental.
Tam also told Fung that Chan and Wong would occasionally give him “specific instructions” to increase the amount of “commissions”. In that case, Tam would take 85 percent of the additional kickbacks while Fung would share the remaining 15 percent. Fung agreed to the plan.
After Tam resigned from Mandarin Group and emigrated to Canada in 1996, Chan became the group engineering manager.
Chan instructed Fung that the bribe payments would continue, while Wong and Jue also initiated similar arrangements with Fung.
The court heard that between 1995 and 1997, a number of contracts, worth totalling $5,239,700, were awarded to Karson by the two hotels, of which more than $1.1 million was taken by the defendants as illegal kickbacks.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, Chan was accused of offering bribes to a subordinate and conspiring with Wong Yiu-kuen, proprietor of Wong Choy Decoration and Painting, to defraud Mandarin Group. The case will be heard next month.
The ICAC received full co-operation from Mandarin Group's management during its investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Crystal Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Dickson Liang.
Chan Chun-man, 40, former group engineering manager of Mandarin Group, received a three-and-a-half-year jail term; while Wong Kok-mun, 59 and Jue Ving-kung, 58, respectively former chief engineer and former assistant chief engineer of Excelsior Hotel, wer e each jailed for two-and-a-half years.
Judge Donald Christie also ordered the defendants to return the bribe money, totallling $1,114,880, to the two hotels.
The defendants were earlier found guilty on a total of five counts of conspiracy to accept advantages between 1995 and 1997 under Section 9 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
The charges alleged the defendants, while being employed by Mandarin Group, of conspiring to accept $1,114,880 in total from Fung Yin-tak, proprietor of Karson Building Services & Engineering Company (Karson), for awarding decoration and maintenance contr acts by the Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong Limited (Mandarin Oriental) and Excelsior Hotel (Hong Kong) Limited (Excelsior).
Tam Chiu-yuen, the then Group Engineering Manager of Mandarin Group, was the alleged mastermind of the scam. Tam left Hong Kong in 1997 and a warrant was issued by the court for his arrest.
Both Mandarin Oriental and Excelsior are affiliated companies of Mandarin Group.
The court heard that in 1991, Tam instructed Fung to inflate all Karson's quotations to the Mandarin Oriental and the Excelsior by 10 percent in general as “commissions”, which Tam would share with Chan, who was then chief engineering of Mandarin Oriental.
Tam also told Fung that Chan and Wong would occasionally give him “specific instructions” to increase the amount of “commissions”. In that case, Tam would take 85 percent of the additional kickbacks while Fung would share the remaining 15 percent. Fung agreed to the plan.
After Tam resigned from Mandarin Group and emigrated to Canada in 1996, Chan became the group engineering manager.
Chan instructed Fung that the bribe payments would continue, while Wong and Jue also initiated similar arrangements with Fung.
The court heard that between 1995 and 1997, a number of contracts, worth totalling $5,239,700, were awarded to Karson by the two hotels, of which more than $1.1 million was taken by the defendants as illegal kickbacks.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, Chan was accused of offering bribes to a subordinate and conspiring with Wong Yiu-kuen, proprietor of Wong Choy Decoration and Painting, to defraud Mandarin Group. The case will be heard next month.
The ICAC received full co-operation from Mandarin Group's management during its investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Crystal Chan, assisted by ICAC officer Dickson Liang.