Trustees chase HK$15 million from Rafael Hui, former Hong Kong chief secretary, and his wife Teresa Lo Mei-mei
High Court lawsuits meant to repay creditors owed money from the city’s jailed former number two official
Two trustees handling the property of bankrupt and jailed former Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan filed lawsuits on Thursday at the High Court to pursue over HK$15 million from two parties, including a company Hui’s wife directed.
Mat Ng and John Lees, managing directors of accounting firm JLA Asia and trustees of Hui’s property, asked for HK$15.29 million from a company called Top Faith Enterprises Limited. According to the government’s companies registry, Hui’s wife Teresa Lo Mei-mei served as the company’s director and Hui was its secretary.
The other writ sought HK$530,000 from businessman Francis Kwan Hung-sang, a childhood friend of Hui’s who was a co-defendant in Hui’s case.
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Hui was declared bankrupt in November 2013 and owed more than HK$60 million to banks and creditors. His property was assigned to the two trustees who were now trying to locate money from Hui to repay the creditors.
Hui’s wife told the press after Hui was jailed in December last year that she and her husband maintained separate finances and advised other married women to smarten up and do the same.
According to one writ, Ng and Lees asked Kwan for the sum related to three cheques that he received between December 2008 and April 2010.
In the writ against Top Faith, the trustees asked for 41 cheques that the company received between May 2007 and March 2012.
Hui is serving a 7-and-½-year jail term for pocketing a total of some HK$19.68 million in bribes and inducements from former Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and former director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen.
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Kwan was a childhood friend of Hui. He was convicted of receiving a bribe worth HK$11.18 million on Hui’s behalf and was sentenced to five years in jail.
Hui was an avid music fan with a collection of 10,955 records – mainly classical music on vinyl LPs, but also some rock and pop albums, including prized Beatles recordings from the 1960s.
The hobby cost him millions of dollars. During the trial, Hui admitted spending HK$200,000 in a single day buying albums, and going on overseas trips for opera concerts that cost more than HK$200,000.
The city’s disgraced former number two official also confessed at trial in October last year that he had spent HK$7.5 million on Eline Shen, a 35-year old former Dragonair flight attendant, with whom he said he started an “intimate” relationship in 2008. He gave her cash, properties, a car, investment funds, handbags, watches and other presents.
A source told the Post today that the trustees had found an overseas buyer to purchase Hui’s record collections, but they declined to reveal the sale amount. The trustees were said to be seeking out Shen for some or all the valuable gifts that Hui gave her.
