Six in plot remanded

Six people convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud with jailed Shanghai property tycoon Chau Ching-ngai over a HK$2.15 billion loan were remanded in custody yesterday pending sentencing this afternoon.

District Court Judge Colin Mackintosh did not call for any reports after defence counsel for the six - among them three lawyers - ended their mitigation submissions.

The six were convicted on Monday of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of publishing a false statement between April 2002 and August 2003.

They defrauded the Hong Kong stock exchange, the Securities and Futures Commission and existing and potential shareholders of imGO after they worked with Chau to conceal a repayment plan for a loan he took to finance his takeover of imGo, later renamed Shanghai Holidays.

They made false representations to conceal Chau's proposal to use the cash flow of imGO to repay the loan to the Bank of China in a joint company announcement and circular regarding the imGO acquisition.

The convicted lawyers are Fan Cho-man, 41; Donald Koo Hoi-yan, 53, and Simon Lai Sau-cheong, 46.

The other defendants are Habibullah Abdul Rahman, 43, then financial controller of Shanghai Land; Rowena Ng See-wai, 43, then managing director of BOCI Asia; and Fiona Lam Lai-chu, 40, then vice-president of BOCI.