Eight years' jail for company director in $92m L/C fraud involving Guangnan
2002-2-7
A company director was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment at the Court of First Instance today (Thursday) for cheating HK$92 million in Letters of Credit (L/Cs) loans based on bogus commercial transactions involving Guangnan (Holdings) Limited (Guangn an).
Chan Ka-hung, 39, director of Connection Investments Limited (Connection), charged by the ICAC, was found guilty by a jury on four counts of conspiracy to defraud last night.
In sentencing, Mr Justice Tong said the case was a deliberate fraudulent scheme to defraud the banks concerned, and that a deterrent sentence was warranted.
So far, 23 persons, including Chan, have been charged for a series of alleged L/C scams in relation to Guangnan and its subsidiaries. Thirteen of them were convicted and given prison terms ranging from two to nine years. The alleged L/C scams were worth over $1.8 billion in total.
The court heard that between May 1 and December 31, 1998, Chan had conspired with staff members of Shun Wing Trading (Shun Wing) to dishonestly cause Guangnan to apply and utilise credit facilities in four L/Cs from Hang Seng Bank Limited, American Expres s Bank Limited, Societe Generale, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
Shun Wing is Guangnan's subsidiary.
In order to support the L/C applications, they had submitted false documents to the banks, purported to evidence genuine underlying commercial transactions between Guangnan and Connection.
As a result, credit facilities totalling US$11,814,000 (about HK$92,149,200) were released to Connection by the banks under the L/Cs.
Chan reverted the L/C proceeds to Shun Wing after deducting 0.1 per cent as commissions.
The prosecution was today represented by Michael Poll on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Miranda Cheung.
Chan Ka-hung, 39, director of Connection Investments Limited (Connection), charged by the ICAC, was found guilty by a jury on four counts of conspiracy to defraud last night.
In sentencing, Mr Justice Tong said the case was a deliberate fraudulent scheme to defraud the banks concerned, and that a deterrent sentence was warranted.
So far, 23 persons, including Chan, have been charged for a series of alleged L/C scams in relation to Guangnan and its subsidiaries. Thirteen of them were convicted and given prison terms ranging from two to nine years. The alleged L/C scams were worth over $1.8 billion in total.
The court heard that between May 1 and December 31, 1998, Chan had conspired with staff members of Shun Wing Trading (Shun Wing) to dishonestly cause Guangnan to apply and utilise credit facilities in four L/Cs from Hang Seng Bank Limited, American Expres s Bank Limited, Societe Generale, and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.
Shun Wing is Guangnan's subsidiary.
In order to support the L/C applications, they had submitted false documents to the banks, purported to evidence genuine underlying commercial transactions between Guangnan and Connection.
As a result, credit facilities totalling US$11,814,000 (about HK$92,149,200) were released to Connection by the banks under the L/Cs.
Chan reverted the L/C proceeds to Shun Wing after deducting 0.1 per cent as commissions.
The prosecution was today represented by Michael Poll on a fiat, assisted by ICAC officer Miranda Cheung.