Travel agency ex-manager faces court for allegedly accepting illegal rebates
2010-3-19
A former manager of a travel agency, charged by the ICAC, today (Friday) appeared in Eastern Magistracy for allegedly accepting over $40,000 in illegal rebates from tour guides for allocating to them guided tours in Japan and deceiving the company of $62, 000.
Kino Tse Yim-tong, 58, former senior operations manager of the Japan Section-Tour Department of Morning Star Travel Service Limited (Morning Star), faces seven counts of agent accepting advantages, contrary to Section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), and seven alternative charges of fraud.
He is also charged with 21 counts of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of POBO.
No plea was taken. The case was transferred to District Court for plea on April 9. The defendant was granted cash bail of $50,000.
The bribery charges allege that between September 2007 and January 2008, Tse had accepted from seven Morning Star tour guides a total of $42,424 as illegal rebates for allocating to them guided tours in Japan.
The alternative fraud charges allege Tse of falsely representing to the aforesaid tour guides that the said illegal rebates were ‘'91head tax’ which would be wholly transmitted to Morning Star or accepted by Tse with the permission of Morning Star.
The remaining 21 charges allege Tse of using documents, namely Gross Profit Analysis which contained inflated amount of tour expenses, to deceive Morning Star.
ICAC investigation revealed that Tse had allegedly pocketed $62,893, being the total inflated sum.
Morning Star has rendered full assistance during ICAC’s investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Irene Wang.
Kino Tse Yim-tong, 58, former senior operations manager of the Japan Section-Tour Department of Morning Star Travel Service Limited (Morning Star), faces seven counts of agent accepting advantages, contrary to Section 9(1)(b) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO), and seven alternative charges of fraud.
He is also charged with 21 counts of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to Section 9(3) of POBO.
No plea was taken. The case was transferred to District Court for plea on April 9. The defendant was granted cash bail of $50,000.
The bribery charges allege that between September 2007 and January 2008, Tse had accepted from seven Morning Star tour guides a total of $42,424 as illegal rebates for allocating to them guided tours in Japan.
The alternative fraud charges allege Tse of falsely representing to the aforesaid tour guides that the said illegal rebates were ‘'91head tax’ which would be wholly transmitted to Morning Star or accepted by Tse with the permission of Morning Star.
The remaining 21 charges allege Tse of using documents, namely Gross Profit Analysis which contained inflated amount of tour expenses, to deceive Morning Star.
ICAC investigation revealed that Tse had allegedly pocketed $62,893, being the total inflated sum.
Morning Star has rendered full assistance during ICAC’s investigation.
The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Irene Wang.