A former senior executive of a bank and a stock investor, charged by the ICAC, were today (Friday) convicted by a jury at the Court of First Instance of accepting and offering over $24 million in bribes respectively in relation to the trading of derivative warrants issued by the bank.

Ma Sin-chi, 39, former managing director of Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Bank ), was found guilty of four counts of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to Section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO).

Co-defendant Ha But-yee, 62, stock investor, was convicted of four counts of offering an advantage to an agent, contrary to Section 9(2)(a) of the POBO.

Mr Justice Patrick Li Hon-leung adjourned the case to next Monday (December 9) for mitigation and sentence, and remanded the defendants in the custody of the Correctional Services Department.

The court heard that at the material time, Ma was the managing director of Deutsche Bank, and also served as chief warrant trader. Deutsche Bank appointed Deutsche Securities Asia Limited as its liquidity provider.

Between January 16, 2007 and May 7, 2008, Ma accepted a total of $24.8 million in bribes from Ha as rewards for giving information on derivative warrants issued by Deutsche Bank, which might assist Ha in his trading of those derivative warrants, the court was told.

Deutsche Bank and the Securities and Futures Commission had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during the investigation.

The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel John Dunn, assisted by ICAC officer Natasha Li.