29 arrested in Jockey Club bribery probe

At least six Jockey Club members - including three voting members - are among 29 people arrested in a corruption scandal rocking the top ranks of the exclusive club.

They were held on suspicion of involvement in a scam in which people seeking scarce and highly sought-after club memberships are alleged to have paid bribes of up to HK$1 million for help with their applications.

One of the club members was suspected to be the ringleader of the racket in which applicants were introduced to voting members who have the power to nominate members, and money was accepted as 'rewards' for supporting their applications, the Independent Commission for Corruption said yesterday.

'Investigation revealed that each applicant was charged from hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars to nearly HK$1 million,' a person familiar with the investigation said. 'They did not know the voting members and were introduced to them through the syndicate.'

Jockey Club management held an urgent meeting yesterday to discuss the arrests but chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said there was little they could do until they knew more. 'Obviously this is a matter of concern to us. We take integrity seriously in all areas of the Jockey Club,' Engelbrecht-Bresges said.

'We held a meeting today, with the management of the club and the Board of Stewards present, in order to make a situation assessment. However, any other action on our part is difficult at this stage, given that the ICAC operation is ongoing and we have had little or nothing shared with us in the way of facts.'

The arrests were made in an operation codenamed 'Pilot' that began at 6.30am on Tuesday when about 100 anti-graft officers with a list of suspects raided more than 30 locations across the city including members' homes.