For the first time, the Hong Kong International Academy Against Corruption (HKIAAC) and the Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia and the Pacific (ACI) jointly organised the Professional Development Programme on Innovative Investigative Technologies in Hong Kong to offer professional training to ACI members to enhance their capabilities in investigating corruption using technologies and advance the global anti-corruption cause. The ACI, jointly launched by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), supports countries in the region in formulating and implementing anti-corruption strategies.

An ICAC corruption investigation into bank officers earlier revealed that four people had conspired with others to deceive Japanese investors into investing over JPY400 million (about HK$28.4 million) in various companies which took part in investment projects in Africa by falsely representing that those companies’ bank accounts held asset totalling over HK$37 billion, and by using false bank documents. A self-employed financial consultant today (July 8) pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud at the District Court.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the ICAC, the Commission will open up its facilities on two weekends in August for members of the public to learn first-hand about Hong Kong’s anti-corruption history in the past five decades and the Commission’s latest anti-graft efforts.

A funeral agent, earlier charged by the ICAC, was today (July 4) convicted at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts of offering a bribe of $3,000 to a fellow church member of a deceased elderly person for securing the business of the latter’s after-death arrangements.