Tycoon's widow cites ICAC over husband's death leap
The wife of a tormented tobacco tycoon, who yesterday leapt to his death under the pressure of huge fraud and corruption charges, has blamed the ICAC for his suicide.
Chong Tsoi-jun, the managing director of cigarette exporters Giant Island, threw himself from his luxury 26th-floor flat in Robinson Heights at 6 am. His pyjama-clad body was found in the residents' swimming pool.
The multi-millionaire was on bail facing corruption and $60 million tax fraud charges after a three-year investigation into his affairs by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
His wife, Wong Po-chun, said he spent the last 36 hours of his life in a state of 'absolute paranoia', convinced that he was about to be arrested.
She said: 'I am in no doubt that the ICAC killed my husband. The pressure on him was so much. Whatever he was accused of, he did not deserve to die.
'He woke two or three times during the night thinking there was someone at the door. It was too much for him.' Chong, who had difficulty walking after sustaining spinal injuries during a seven-month spell in custody last year, finally opened the bedroom window and jumped.
Ms Wong claims his state of panic was induced by a phone call from the ICAC on Wednesday which she answered in a bid to protect him, but he overheard.
It was to tell Chong, 50, he had breached the conditions of his $26 million bail by failing to report to the ICAC. Chong thought he had fulfilled the condition by appearing in court earlier the same day for a preliminary hearing for his trial, due to start on November 4.
Last night, the leading investigator in the Chong case, ICAC Assistant Director of Operations Tony Godfrey, said: 'He was facing two very serious charges. The telephone call was not made by an investigator. It was over a technical matter relating to bail reporting conditions and made by someone from our detention centre.' An ICAC spokesman said the call was necessary to 'make sure' Chong was still in the territory because there had been a technical breach of bail conditions.
Chong was arrested in December 1993 and charged in connection with an alleged $8 billion cigarette smuggling racket.
He was also accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice by trying to persuade potential prosecution witness Tommy Chui To-yan not to give evidence.
But Chui was murdered in Singapore in April last year and this charge was dropped.
It was then that Chong's bail was first withdrawn, and his solicitor, Andrew Lam Ping-cheung, said he was obsessed by the fear it was about to happen again.
'He was all the time thinking about the ICAC coming to arrest him for failing to report,' Mr Lam said. 'It was this which caused him to crack.'
