CFA upholds bribery convictions for former BOC executive and merchant
2002-3-14
A former executive of the Hong Kong Branch of Bank of China (BOC Hong Kong) and a businessman who were convicted of bribery over the release of a $312 million loan from the bank had lost their appeals to the Court of Final Appeal (CFA).
BOC Hong Kong's former Assistant General Manager Li Defan, and director and shareholder of Shing Hung Investments Limited (SHIL) Fan Yingchao, both 49, were found guilty at the District Court on a total of five bribery charges in December 2000.
The District Court had heard that Li had accepted over $3.69 million in bribes from Fan for assisting in the application and release of a $312 million loan to SHIL in 1997.
Li received a two-and-a half years' jail term and was ordered to pay the bank $3.69 million in restitution.
Fan, who was convicted of offering the bribes to Li, was jailed for two years and nine months.
Li and Fan had appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Appeal in December last year, before taking their cases to the CFA.
The appellants argued that the trial judge had erred in law in saying that he could more readily draw inferences against them because they had not given evidence, and that such reasoning infringed their right to silence.
The CFA, presided by Chief Justice Andrew Li, Mr Justice Bokhary, Mr Justice Patrick Chan, Mr Justice Mortimer and Lord Justice Hoffmann, ruled that the ground failed and unanimously dismissed their appeals.
In delivering the CFA's judgement, Lord Justice Hoffmann said the trial judge, having earlier rejected the appellants' explanations as a pack of lies, was perfectly entitled to regard their failure to give evidence as strengthening the inference to be dra wn from the prosecution case.
BOC Hong Kong's former Assistant General Manager Li Defan, and director and shareholder of Shing Hung Investments Limited (SHIL) Fan Yingchao, both 49, were found guilty at the District Court on a total of five bribery charges in December 2000.
The District Court had heard that Li had accepted over $3.69 million in bribes from Fan for assisting in the application and release of a $312 million loan to SHIL in 1997.
Li received a two-and-a half years' jail term and was ordered to pay the bank $3.69 million in restitution.
Fan, who was convicted of offering the bribes to Li, was jailed for two years and nine months.
Li and Fan had appealed unsuccessfully to the Court of Appeal in December last year, before taking their cases to the CFA.
The appellants argued that the trial judge had erred in law in saying that he could more readily draw inferences against them because they had not given evidence, and that such reasoning infringed their right to silence.
The CFA, presided by Chief Justice Andrew Li, Mr Justice Bokhary, Mr Justice Patrick Chan, Mr Justice Mortimer and Lord Justice Hoffmann, ruled that the ground failed and unanimously dismissed their appeals.
In delivering the CFA's judgement, Lord Justice Hoffmann said the trial judge, having earlier rejected the appellants' explanations as a pack of lies, was perfectly entitled to regard their failure to give evidence as strengthening the inference to be dra wn from the prosecution case.