CY Leung faces separate probes of HK$50 million deal with Australian firm

Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will face separate investigations by the city's graft-buster agency, as well as Australian police, into a HK$50 million deal between Leung and an Australian firm.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) received a complaint filed by the Neo Democrats party yesterday after details of the deal were revealed by Fairfax newspapers in Australia on Wednesday.

Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said he had delegated full responsibility to Director of Public Prosecutions Keith Yeung Ka-hung to avoid any perception of bias.

In Australia, Greens party leader Senator Christine Milne asked federal police to investigate if the deal broke foreign bribery laws. Those laws make it illegal to provide a benefit to a foreign public official in order to obtain a business advantage.

Leung signed the HK$50-million deal with engineering firm UGL in 2011, months before he became chief executive. It wanted to buy insolvent property firm DTZ, of which Leung was a director.

The deal - made two days before Leung resigned from DTZ and the completion of the takeover - stipulated that he would receive the money in two instalments in 2012 and 2013. UGL and Leung said the money was to prevent him from forming or joining a rival firm within two years.