Grand Field fraud couple's conviction quashed
The Court of Appeal has set aside one of three convictions against a former company chairman and his wife who were jailed for deceiving shareholders and the stock exchange about a fake gas project on the mainland.
Wayland Tsang Wai-lun, former chairman of listed developer Grand Field, was sentenced to 32 months in jail while his wife, Nancy Kwok Wai-man, was given 30 months after being found guilty in the District Court of fraud.
The three appeal judges said trial judge Albert Wong Sung-hau was unsure if four other people involved in one charge were party to the conspiracy. Therefore, the judges said, Tsang and Kwok must also be acquitted.
They said the court would decide later the appropriate total sentence for the pair on the two remaining charges.
In the previous hearings, Wong found Tsang was the mastermind behind the scam.
Both were found guilty of a conspiracy to defraud by lying to the stock exchange and investors in arranging for Grand Field to buy a bogus HK$63 million investment in a Chongqing gas pipeline venture from firms under their control in 2002.
The pair never intended to inject money into the fake project but aimed to use it as an excuse to gain exchange approval for Grand Field to issue new shares for their benefit, the court heard.
Some investors complained to the stock exchange about the money not being spent on the project. The couple then turned to another firm, Upbest, to pretend to dispose of the fake project to end the exchange's probe.
