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Tam Pak-wing outside court before the verdict was delivered. Photo: Nora Tam

Top Hong Kong banker and businessman cleared of bribery

Judge rules that although the Bank of East Asia vice-president accepted numerous gifts, the pair were like father and son and it was wrong to infer dishonest motives

A senior vice-president of the Bank of East Asia who accepted advantages ranging from baby toys to a HK$550,000 discount for a Porsche sports car walked free from court on Thursday after being cleared of bribery charges.

The District Court ruled that although Jimmy Lau Yau-wai took gifts from businessman Tam Pak-wing, it may not have amounted to intent to bribe given the pair’s friendship and close ties.

But the court found Tam Hiu-kit, 34, Tam’s nephew, guilty of falsifying an account over an invoice linked to the case. The nephew will be sentenced on July 14, pending a community service report.

A fourth defendant, Chan Shing-yip, 42, was cleared of a joint count with the nephew.

Lau, 42, had pleaded not guilty to seven counts of accepting an advantage from agents, while Tam, 67, pleaded not guilty to the same number of counts accusing him of offering the advantages.

Prosecutors alleged that Lau assisted Tam in acquiring loans by making recommendations to his bank. In doing so, Lau was allegedly offered HK$12,613 worth of baby toys, a Panerai watch, free accommodation and temporary use of a Mercedes-Benz, and discounts to renovate his house and buy a Porsche between 2011 and 2013.

Chan Shing-yip was cleared of falsifying an account over an invoice linked to the case. Photo: Nora Tam
Handing down his 78-page written judgment, judge Josiah Lam Wai-kuen wrote that he accepted the two were as close as “father and son” and “god-grandfather and god-grandchildren”.

“An indisputed fact is that they have a really close relationship,” Lam wrote, saying that it would be wrong for prosecutors to assume the intent was solely to transfer benefits.

Lam cited evidence from the trial that the banker was often allowed to drive Tam’s car. Lau would run errands for Tam’s son on academic matters and introduced doctors to Tam’s family.

Tam prayed for good fortune for Lau and shared the same account with him for Chinese medicine services, the court heard earlier.

The judge said evidence also showed that Tam barely needed to rely on Bank of East Asia. Tam, he noted, once moved a HK$100 million investment from Lau’s bank to another. When the businessman failed to broker a deal with the bank, a witness testified earlier, the businessman simply gave up.

Although Lau broke the internal rules of his banks by failing to declare the gifts, the judge said, he did not believe the banker would treat them as bribes as Lau saw Tam as a father figure who had taught him integrity.

The court heard earlier that Lau was sold the Porsche for HK$80,000 after Tam crashed it, even though it was valued at HK$1.35 million by an insurance firm. The judge said it was difficult to determine the price of a crashed second-hand car, so it should not be treated as Lau being offered a discount.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Top banker who accepted gifts is cleared of bribery
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