Rafael Hui helped himself to funds that were for investment, not bribery, court told

Former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan "misappropriated" investment funds that an alleged bagman for his two Kwok bosses gave to Hui's friend, a defence lawyer said yesterday.

The HK$12 million that Sun Hung Kai Properties executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen paid out were not bribes, Ian Winter QC insisted. Prosecutors were merely selecting numbers at random to say bribery had been committed, the lawyer said.

Earlier, the High Court heard Chan transferred HK$12 million to another alleged middleman, Francis Kwan Hung-sang, in November 2007. Chan had testified his purpose was to invest in a pill that was touted to prevent hangovers. But Kwan moved the money to his childhood pal, Hui.

Winter said it was as if Hui foresaw a month earlier that the cash was coming when he began to take hefty sums from his bank account - HK$940,000 in October alone. Kwan and Hui misappropriated what Chan had genuinely intended to be an investment in Kwan's pill business, Winter said.

He attacked the claim that SHKP co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong "reimbursed" Chan for the alleged bribe via bonuses of HK$5 million and HK$7 million the following year.

"The prosecution can make up any number and call it a reimbursement," Winter told the jury.