Full scale operations On 8 January 2000, just one day before the press conference, the ICAC commenced arrest operations and searched a number of places in the territory for two consecutive days. Eighty investigators were deployed in the action, 21 search warrants were executed and eight persons (including three HD officers) were arrested. (They were the project clerk of works, an assistant clerk of works, a works supervisor, two ex-directors of Hui Hon and three Hui Hon staff members including the site agent, the site foreman and the assistant engineer.) They were alleged to have committed corruption and conspiracy to defraud by using short piles to save construction costs in relation to the foundation works at the Yuen Chau Kok site. During the operations, the ICAC seized a large amount of documents and exhibits. Four shipping containers were needed to hold the substandard concrete cores alone. The investigators had to interview all the suspects and witnesses and examine the seized documents, progress records, and test records all within a very short space of time. The records seemed flawless, however, and the investigators realized that they would now have to search for clues between the lines.