Judge says Lee family misled investigators
ALLIED Group's major shareholders, the family of Lee Ming Tee, repeatedly misled investigators from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and an accountant appointed by the Financial Secretary to probe Allied and other companies, the District Court was told yesterday.
Mr Lee Ming Tee claims to have cut his links to the company. The Lee & Lee Trust, with his son Lee Seng Hui as beneficiary, is the major shareholder in Allied Group.
In his judgment yesterday, Judge Sweeney said Mr Lee's nephew, Lee Seng Lin, and Chan Chun On, a former Allied director who fled the territory after the start of the investigation by accountant Nicholas Allen in August 1992, might also have paid 'hush money' to an employee of an Allied subsidiary to ensure her silence about an illegal share-support operation.
A company controlled by Mr Lee Ming Tee called Excel-In was 'the principal company in a massive and clandestine share-support scheme using the circuitous route of paper companies to create the undesirable and pernicious effect of a false market in Allied shares. Innocent stockholders were misled into thinking there was greater liquidity than there actually was,' Judge Sweeney said.
The revelations came in summing up in a theft case brought against Polly Chan Wai-mui, a former employee of Excel-In. Ms Chan was acquitted of stealing almost $14 million from Excel-In in 30 cheques written between 1990 and 1992 because Judge Sweeney could not trust fully the prosecution witnesses.
'I have doubts, therefore I must acquit,' he said, although he considered Ms Chan 'dishonest and of bad character' because she had worked for the Lees for several years in an illegal share-support scheme.
Ms Chan was accused of altering cheques to make small sums into large sums and of paying them into accounts belonging to herself and family members. She did not deny altering cheques but claimed she was given permission to do so by Chan Chun On as part of a scheme to reward her for lying to the SFC, and to ensure continued loyalty. The unusual method was designed so that she could be accused of theft and so kept under control, she said.