More charges for serving and ex-IRD staff over alleged tax bribery scam
2001-3-23
The ICAC today (Friday) charged a Tax Inspector of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and laid additional charges against a former IRD Assistant Assessor for an alleged taxation bribery scam.
Tax Inspector II Angus Wong Wai-ki, 29, CPA Jones Wong Kai-chung, 48, and former Assistant Assessor Simon Li Hon-lun, 40, will appear at Eastern Court at 9:30 am on Monday (March 26, 2001) to face a total of seven charges in three separate cases.
The ICAC investigation followed a referral from the senior management of IRD. It was suspected that a former IRD employee and an accountant had secured corrupt assistance from some serving IRD staff in obtaining confidential information from the Departme nt.
The defendants were amongst 32 arrested during ICAC an operation in September last year.
In the first case, Wong Wai-ki was charged with one count of accepting $10,000 from Li Hon-lun without the general or special permission of the Chief Executive, contrary to Section 3 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
He faced another charge of offering $5,000 to Derrick Seto Wai-lap, an employee of Fair Future Industrial Limited (Fair Future), for referring a public accountant firm to Fair Future as the company’s tax representative.
The alleged offences took place in June last year.
In the second case, Wong Kai-chung faced one count of offering $2,000 to $3,000 to Tax Inspector II Chung Chi-ming while having dealings with IRD between January 1998 and December 1999, contrary to Section 8 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
Meanwhile, four additional charges were laid against Li Hon-lun in the third case.
One of the additional charges alleged him of conspiring with Albert Wong Wing-kuen, a proprietor of an accounting services company, to offer advantages to IRD employees between January 1999 and September 2000.
Such advantages were said to include restaurant meals, nightclub and karaoke lounge entertainment, accommodation in Macau and prostitution services.
It was alleged that the bribes were offered to IRD employees for them to :
- provide confidential information from IRD files and the IRD computer system and to provide relevant printouts;
- provide information relating to the field audit assessments of taxpayers;
- deferring the due date fixed by IRD for a reply by a taxpayer to an IRD query; and
- revealing information relating to the issue by IRD of compound letters to taxpayers who were late in filing their returns.
Li was further charged with three counts of lending $1.5 million in total to Yeung Tsz-ming respectively at 144 percent and 156 percent per annum between March and August 2000.
He was earlier charged with three bribery offences.
The first charge alleged him of accepting more than $100,000 from Certified Public Accountant Peter Lau Yuk-chu as a reward for introducing Lau to a taxpayer under investigation by IRD, and giving favourable treatment towards Lau and the taxpayer between 1997 and 1998.
He was also accused of having offered $10,000 to Wong Wai-ki while having dealings with the IRD between June and August 2000.
The third charge alleged Li of offering an unspecified amount of money to Tax Inspector II Chung Chi-ming on August 30, 2000 for Chung to interfere with the IRD filing system regarding the file of a specific taxpayer under IRD investigation, to prevent th e file from being brought up for further action by IRD.
The three defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearances on Monday.
Tax Inspector II Angus Wong Wai-ki, 29, CPA Jones Wong Kai-chung, 48, and former Assistant Assessor Simon Li Hon-lun, 40, will appear at Eastern Court at 9:30 am on Monday (March 26, 2001) to face a total of seven charges in three separate cases.
The ICAC investigation followed a referral from the senior management of IRD. It was suspected that a former IRD employee and an accountant had secured corrupt assistance from some serving IRD staff in obtaining confidential information from the Departme nt.
The defendants were amongst 32 arrested during ICAC an operation in September last year.
In the first case, Wong Wai-ki was charged with one count of accepting $10,000 from Li Hon-lun without the general or special permission of the Chief Executive, contrary to Section 3 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
He faced another charge of offering $5,000 to Derrick Seto Wai-lap, an employee of Fair Future Industrial Limited (Fair Future), for referring a public accountant firm to Fair Future as the company’s tax representative.
The alleged offences took place in June last year.
In the second case, Wong Kai-chung faced one count of offering $2,000 to $3,000 to Tax Inspector II Chung Chi-ming while having dealings with IRD between January 1998 and December 1999, contrary to Section 8 of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance.
Meanwhile, four additional charges were laid against Li Hon-lun in the third case.
One of the additional charges alleged him of conspiring with Albert Wong Wing-kuen, a proprietor of an accounting services company, to offer advantages to IRD employees between January 1999 and September 2000.
Such advantages were said to include restaurant meals, nightclub and karaoke lounge entertainment, accommodation in Macau and prostitution services.
It was alleged that the bribes were offered to IRD employees for them to :
- provide confidential information from IRD files and the IRD computer system and to provide relevant printouts;
- provide information relating to the field audit assessments of taxpayers;
- deferring the due date fixed by IRD for a reply by a taxpayer to an IRD query; and
- revealing information relating to the issue by IRD of compound letters to taxpayers who were late in filing their returns.
Li was further charged with three counts of lending $1.5 million in total to Yeung Tsz-ming respectively at 144 percent and 156 percent per annum between March and August 2000.
He was earlier charged with three bribery offences.
The first charge alleged him of accepting more than $100,000 from Certified Public Accountant Peter Lau Yuk-chu as a reward for introducing Lau to a taxpayer under investigation by IRD, and giving favourable treatment towards Lau and the taxpayer between 1997 and 1998.
He was also accused of having offered $10,000 to Wong Wai-ki while having dealings with the IRD between June and August 2000.
The third charge alleged Li of offering an unspecified amount of money to Tax Inspector II Chung Chi-ming on August 30, 2000 for Chung to interfere with the IRD filing system regarding the file of a specific taxpayer under IRD investigation, to prevent th e file from being brought up for further action by IRD.
The three defendants have been released on ICAC bail, pending their court appearances on Monday.