Until they were arrested yesterday, the Kwok brothers were primarily known as hardworking visionaries who helped build Sun Hung Kai into one of the biggest property developers in Hong Kong.
Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong, 59, and his younger brother Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, 58 - both joint chairmen and managing directors of SHKP - were arrested by the ICAC for suspected corruption yesterday, 10 days after it had detained the executive director, Thomas Chan Kui-yuen.
'The atmosphere is very tense here,' said one employee, who asked not to be named. 'This morning I got a call from a section head who asked if we have any press conferences today. 'If there's one, please cancel it,' they said. Hours later, we saw our boss inside a car driving into the ICAC headquarters on the TV news.'
The Kwoks are Hong Kong's second-richest family, according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of US$18.3 billion.
Thomas Kwok is responsible for projects and development, as well as sales, while Raymond is head of financing and leasing. They became joint chairmen of the property empire after their mother, Kwong Siu-hing, the 82-year-old matriarch of the Kwok family, retired in December.
'Thomas is a good boss but very demanding,' said an employee. 'We are not surprised if we see him on a site inspection on the weekend. Sometimes he brings his mother.'
Raymond Kwok is also known as a workaholic. 'We get e-mails from [Raymond] at odd hours, such as at 1am or 6am about updating the latest progress of a project development,' one SHKP executive said.