Two then bank employees and two intermediaries were charged by the ICAC yesterday (June 25) for allegedly conspiring together to accept bribes totalling over HK$180,000 for assisting clients of the intermediaries to open bank accounts. An intermediary concerned also allegedly offered a bribe to another bank employee by similar corrupt means, but his offer was rejected.

A former director of operations of the advertising department of a newspaper company, charged by the ICAC, was today (June 26) convicted at the District Court of eight counts of bribery for soliciting bribes from four subordinates and accepting about $88,000 in total from two of them after their receipt of commissions from the company. The two subordinates earlier pleaded guilty to having offered bribes.

A then Police Sergeant, charged by the ICAC, today (June 24) admitted at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts that he had applied for continued service beyond retirement age and deceived the Hong Kong Police Credit Union (HKPCU) into granting him three loans totalling over $300,000 by concealing his personal debts.

A former Inspector of the Customs and Excise Department (C&E), charged by the ICAC, was today (June 24) handed a 240-hour community service order at the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts for concealing his non-compliance of the relevant live-in requirement under the Home Financing Scheme (HFS) for civil servants to deceive the government into granting him housing allowance totalling over $1.5 million.

For the first time the ICAC had gathered together over 300 stakeholders in building management, including representatives from relevant Government departments, regulatory bodies, professional bodies, District Council (DC) members from all 18 districts, Owners' Corporations (OCs) representatives, flats owners as well as property management professionals, at the Building Management Summit (the Summit) hosted by the Commission today (June 23). The event served as a platform for direct exchange and was a collective effort from different sectors to tackle issues relating to building maintenance and create a desirable living environment for citizens.

The ICAC today (June 20) further charged a supermarket chain manager and an employee of a contractor with conspiracy to defraud upon receipt of further legal advice from the Department of Justice (DoJ), following defendants, who were charged earlier, indicated to plead guilty and render assistance to the prosecution. An employee and three contractor staff of the supermarket were previously charged for allegedly conspiring together to deceive the supermarket into releasing wages totalling over $3.2 million in a span of two years by falsifying attendance records of “ghost workers”.

A hostel manager was charged by the ICAC yesterday (June 17) for allegedly stealing payments of over $900,000 by altering booking records of the hostel on various occasions over a span of two years and covering up his misappropriation by making false representation that a group client owed payments to the hostel.

Eight Principal Hawker Control Officers (PHCOs) of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD), charged by the ICAC with misconduct in public office (MIPO), were today (June 17) sentenced to community service orders ranging from 150 to 240 hours at the District Court for compiling a “buddy” list to show preferential treatments to certain candidates of the 2019 Recruitment of Assistant Hawker Control Officer (AHCO Recruitment 2019) without following the civil servants appointment policy.

ICAC Commissioner Mr Woo Ying-ming today (June 16) commenced a duty visit to Beijing and Shaanxi to exchange the latest on graft-fighting work with Mainland anti-corruption authorities.

An ICAC corruption investigation earlier revealed that an assistant manager of an insurance company had recruited dummy agents to defraud the insurer of commissions and payments totalling about $4.6 million, by taking out insurance policies with false particulars, while three downline dummy agents assisted in handling crime proceeds of over $2.3 million. The four defendants were today (June 11) sentenced at the District Court to jail terms from 12 months to 32 months.