Trio admit cheating $1.2m credit facilities with bogus transactions
2001-11-29
Three merchants today (Thursday) admitted at District Court that they had conspired to cheat Letters of Credit (L/C) facilities totalling about $1.2 million from a local bank with false business transaction records.
Fung Yin-mei, 48, shareholder of Sunny Leather Ware Mfy Limited (Sunny Leather); Cheung Ching-man, 33, proprietor of Polybest Company (Polybest); and Chan Kwok-wai, 53, proprietor of Chinaways Enterprises Company (Chinaways), pleaded guilty to two joint c harges of conspiracy to defraud.
Judge Line adjourned sentencing the defendants until December 20, pending their background and community service order reports. The defendants were granted cash bail of $20,000 each.
The case arose from a corruption complaint, alleging that some bank staff might have accepted advantages to facilitate fraudulent L/C applications.
ICAC enquiries uncovered a fraudulent scheme to obtain credit facilities with bogus business records.
The court heard that between April 1, 2000 and January 31, 2001, Fung conspired with Cheung and Chan to defraud the Wing Hang Bank Limited by dishonestly causing the bank to issue five L/Cs on behalf of Sunny Leather in favour of Polybest and Chinaways, w hich were the nominated beneficiaries.
The defendants submitted false documents to the bank, purporting to show that there were genuine underlying business transactions between Sunny Leather, Polybest and Chinaways.
As a result, the bank released $324,800 and $856,200 to Polybest and Chinaways respectively.
After deducting bank charges, Polybest and Chinaways reverted the remaining funds to Sunny Leather.
Sunny Leather had subsequently repaid all the L/C debts to the bank.
The court also heard that the bank would not have approved and released the L/Cs totalling $1,181,000 if it had been aware of the fraudulent nature of the applications.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Frederick Chung, assisted by ICAC officer Sarah Lau.
Fung Yin-mei, 48, shareholder of Sunny Leather Ware Mfy Limited (Sunny Leather); Cheung Ching-man, 33, proprietor of Polybest Company (Polybest); and Chan Kwok-wai, 53, proprietor of Chinaways Enterprises Company (Chinaways), pleaded guilty to two joint c harges of conspiracy to defraud.
Judge Line adjourned sentencing the defendants until December 20, pending their background and community service order reports. The defendants were granted cash bail of $20,000 each.
The case arose from a corruption complaint, alleging that some bank staff might have accepted advantages to facilitate fraudulent L/C applications.
ICAC enquiries uncovered a fraudulent scheme to obtain credit facilities with bogus business records.
The court heard that between April 1, 2000 and January 31, 2001, Fung conspired with Cheung and Chan to defraud the Wing Hang Bank Limited by dishonestly causing the bank to issue five L/Cs on behalf of Sunny Leather in favour of Polybest and Chinaways, w hich were the nominated beneficiaries.
The defendants submitted false documents to the bank, purporting to show that there were genuine underlying business transactions between Sunny Leather, Polybest and Chinaways.
As a result, the bank released $324,800 and $856,200 to Polybest and Chinaways respectively.
After deducting bank charges, Polybest and Chinaways reverted the remaining funds to Sunny Leather.
Sunny Leather had subsequently repaid all the L/C debts to the bank.
The court also heard that the bank would not have approved and released the L/Cs totalling $1,181,000 if it had been aware of the fraudulent nature of the applications.
The prosecution was today represented by Senior Government Counsel Frederick Chung, assisted by ICAC officer Sarah Lau.