Phone records show Macau chief made contact with tycoon over land tender
Macau's disgraced public works chief Ao Man-long contacted Hong Kong tycoon Steven Lo Kit-sing through a middleman just a few hours after the deadline to submit proposals to tender for land near the Macau airport, a court heard yesterday.
This was disclosed in telephone records that also showed Lo had shown interest in the land even before the development plan was public knowledge, the Macau Court of First Instance was told.
Senior investigator Io Fu-chun of the Macau Independent Commission Against Corruption was speaking as the trial of Lo and Chinese Estates chairman Joseph Lau Luen-hung, on charges of bribing Ao, resumed.
Yesterday, Io said the Macau authorities commissioned First Pacific Davies (Savills) in December 2004 to evaluate the worth of the airport land. No public announcements had been made, but phone records showed that Lo had been in touch with Ao.
Before the tender closed on June 27, 2005, Lo had met Ao in Macau, the investigator said.
Phone records also showed that Ao had called Macau businessman Ho Meng-fai before the submission deadline passed. Ho then immediately phoned Lo, suggesting that Ho was acting as a middleman for the pair. Io described the sequence of events as "strange".
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that phone records showed Ao Man-long had called Macau gaming magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun, when in fact the records showed Ao had called Macau businessman Ho Meng-fai.
