Beijing-backed steelmaker and property developer Citic Pacific has delayed a Hong Kong police fraud probe by appealing a court ruling that investigators could access key evidence.
Citic Pacific last month lost a lengthy legal battle to block the police investigation into its failure to disclose immediately a HK$15.5 billion derivatives loss in September 2008.
Court of First Instance Judge Alan Wright then ruled that the state-owned enterprise should hand over documents it has been fighting to keep out of police hands, saying there was a 'prima facie case of the existence of conspiracy to defraud'.
But Citic Pacific's appeal means the police cannot use the evidence until this latest battle has wound its way through the civil courts.
Citic Pacific failed to reveal massive derivatives losses, caused by an unauthorised bet on the Australian dollar, until six weeks after it occurred. The disastrous wrong-way bet led to the company being rescued by its parent Citic Group and the resignation of chairman Larry Yung Chi-kin.
On March 18, the High Court ruled the police could access six key files that Citic Pacific has for the past two years argued should be shielded from investigators because they contain advice from its lawyers and are therefore covered by legal privilege. The Department of Justice told the court the files showed evidence of fraud.