Sales of luxury apartments at the centre of a corruption case involving two Hong Kong tycoons have been halted - and people who have already put down money to buy flats are not happy.
The Macau government has not ruled out invalidating the purchase of the land on which the flats are being built, after disgraced former Macau public works chief Ao Man-long was found guilty of accepting a HK$20 million bribe to secure the land for developers.
The land was sold to Moon Ocean, a company previously owned by Steven Lo Kit-sing and now owned by Joseph Lau Luen-hung's Chinese Estates. Macau's Court of Final Appeal heard Ao received HK$20 million from the two tycoons in 2005.
Lau and Lo, who deny charges of bribery and money laundering, face trial.
Industry sources said Hong Kong-listed Chinese Estates had decided to suspend sales at La Scala. Prior to Ao's latest trial, 300 flats had been sold there. The HK$20 billion development will have 4,000 flats.
'I have not heard of any successful transaction since early May,' said a Macau insider. 'Many clients do not like La Scala now and some buyers have demanded compensation.'