Names of Hong Kong firms linked to pair in Silvio Berlusconi trial unveiled
Names of companies run by two Hong Kong women connected to fraud trial involving shamed former Italian premier are revealed
New details have emerged of the network of companies controlled by two Hong Kong women at the centre of a multimillion-dollar money laundering trial linked to shamed Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Paddy Chan Mei-yiu and Katherine Hsu May-chun, along with Berlusconi's son Pier Silvio, are among 11 defendants in the case.
An Italian former senator, Sergio De Gregorio, has alleged that the administration of then-chief executive, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, was asked in 2008 to delay the transfer to public prosecutors in Italy of crucial evidence seized in Hong Kong, in return for help in securing a private audience with the pope. An audience was arranged, but Tsang pulled out due to opposition from Beijing, De Gregorio said.
Apple Daily yesterday reported that Tsang did eventually get to meet the head of the Catholic Church in July this year.
Tsang faces pressure from across the political spectrum to explain his attempts to secure the private talks.
Chan and Hsu spent almost seven years trying to stop the evidence seized in Hong Kong reaching Italian prosecutors but last month the appeals were exhausted and the documents sent to Italy.
They will be submitted to the Italian court on Tuesday.