Fraud trial man loses witness bid
A court has dismissed a bid by the former chairman of a listed company to recall witnesses in his HK$72 million fraud trial because three of the ICAC officers involved have been accused of coaching witnesses to testify in another case.
Hon Ming-kong, 42, ex-chairman of China Sciences Conservational Power, made the attempt in the District Court, where he and two others are facing 13 charges of conspiracy to defraud and theft involving HK$72 million.
Lawyers for Hon wanted to recall and question eight prosecution witnesses on the grounds that the ICAC officers might have coached them, therefore denying their client the right to a fair trial.
Dismissing the application, Judge Stanley Chan Kwong-chi said there was no evidence to suggest the officers had coached the witnesses.
The three, Ben Chan Kai-hung, 36, Kevin Cho Wing-nin, 46, and Au Kim-fung, 42, have been accused of inducing former warrants trader Cheung Ching-ho in late 2009 to give false evidence in a trial.
'The case of Cheung Ching-ho occurred in 2009, five years after the present case,' Chan said.
'The three ICAC officers were arrested on November 19, 2010, for the perverting of the course of justice. The involvement of the three officers in the present case is limited. The present charges against all three defendants [concern] offences allegedly committed in 2004 to 2005.'
Hon, the company's former executive director Anthony Chow Ho-tung, 49, and an employee of a subsidiary, Lai Kam-tung, 43, have been on trial since April 2008.
Cheung, 39, was charged with conspiracy to defraud in connection with a warrants trading scam. His lawyers are trying to get the proceedings stayed on the grounds that he would not get a fair trial.
Counsel for the government Peter Dunn earlier said that Hon's application was groundless and purely a delaying tactic. The judge said that today was the third anniversary of the trial's opening.
