Judge postpones sentencing of no-show ex-Semtech chairman
A District Court judge has postponed the sentencing of former Semtech International Holdings chairman Derek Wong Chong-kwong until next month to allow time to ensure his absence from court was voluntary.
Judge Colin Mackintosh, who on Tuesday issued an arrest warrant for Wong, yesterday sentenced Wong's two co-defendants to jail terms of 23 months in the corruption case.
Wong, 37, had been punctual in his attendance at the more than month-long trial but failed to show up for Tuesday's hearing, at which the judge convicted him on two bribery charges that said he paid HK$570,000 to a banker and a broker in return for the promotion of Semtech shares in 2004.
Wong, who was freed on HK$700,000 bail and barred from leaving Hong Kong, is believed to have breached his bail conditions and absconded.
Prosecuting barrister Keith Oderberg and defence barrister James Chandler told the judge yesterday there were no details about Wong's whereabouts.
Considering the interests of the co-defendants, together with the strong evidence suggesting Wong had absconded, Judge Mackintosh adjourned Wong's case to August 15. He sentenced banker Ernest Leung Chi-wah and broker Yung Ka-tim, both 50, to jail terms of 23 months for pocketing a total of HK$570,000 in corrupt payments to promote Wong's company's shares in 2004 before a share placement.
'Corruption is a cancer [ in society] and must be cut out,' Judge Mackintosh said.
In sentencing the pair, the judge said he had reduced the sentences by four months because of the delay in prosecuting the defendants, who were arrested and charged in 2005.
Barristers Alexander King SC and Thomas Iu, for Leung and Yung, yesterday said the proceedings against their clients had been unjustly delayed by another case in which Wong was convicted after a trial lasting more than 60 hearing days.
In that high-profile case, Wong was jailed with his girlfriend, Mandy Chui Man-si, and solicitor Andrew Lam Ping-cheong for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, a count on which barrister Kevin Egan was acquitted. But Egan was jailed for attempting to disclose the identity of a protected witness to a then-South China Morning Post reporter. All four are on bail pending appeals.
'Justice demands a criminal trial to be heard more quickly,' the judge said yesterday. Leung and Yung would appeal, their lawyers said.
