Former top broker Arthur Lai Cheuk-kwan, the man who wanted to create China's Morgan Stanley, spent last night in custody after he and four other market players were charged with fraud and corruption. Lai, 43, is accused of accepting bribes exceeding $38 million arising from a deal in 1990 in which Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond sold his Hong Kong company to local interests. Lai was held after being unable to raise $10 million bail. His elder brother Raymond Lai Chik-fan, 47, accused of aiding and abetting the payment of the bribes, also spent a night in the cells. Taiwanese businessman David Tong Cun-lin, 47, film producer and former movie actress Jade Hsu Jye, 39, and Peter Mou Chi-luen, 44, were released on bail totalling $44 million. All five are charged with plotting to defraud the Securities and Futures Commission and the Committee on Takeovers and Mergers by keeping secret the true ownership of shares. Tong is also accused of offering a $26.4 million bribe to Arthur Lai in return for his help in Tomson Pacific's purchase of 34.5 per cent of the Bond Corporation's shares - a $1 billion deal that was one of the first large takeovers after the 1989 market crash. Arthur Lai is alleged to have accepted the bribe from Tong and a further corrupt payment of A$2 million (HK$12 million) from a Bond company in Australia. Raymond Lai and Mou are alleged to have assisted. It took a court clerk nearly 10 minutes to read the charges to a packed Eastern Court. Prosecutor Joseph Pethes said the aim was to take the case to the High Court under the Complex Commercial Crimes Ordinance. It is not expected to go ahead until next year. Magistrate Alan Wright ordered all five defendants to surrender their travel documents and to report to a police station every Monday. He adjourned the case until August 27. The defendants were then taken into the dock while hurried arrangements were made to raise bail money. Tong was released after providing $20 million cash and a surety for a further $20 million. Hsu and Mou each put up $1 million cash and a $1 million surety. The Lai brothers failed to meet the terms of their bail in time. Arthur Lai was required to provide $5 million cash and a $5 million surety. His brother was asked for $1 million cash and $1 million surety. The Lais are expected to make another attempt to raise bail today. All five were barred from contacting any of the 109 potential witnesses in the case. Lawyers for the five urged the magistrate not to put a block on their right to travel abroad, arguing it was essential for their work. But Mr Wright imposed the travel ban, saying: 'With modern communications, I can't see that it will cause anyone great inconvenience'. The arrests follow a two-year investigation by the Commercial Crime Bureau - one of the longest on record - and the hearing comes just weeks before the detective supervising it is due to retire. Bond Corporation International (BCIL) was taken over by Tomson Pacific, then chaired by tycoon Stanley Ho, on June 28, 1990. An investigation into the takeover was ordered by the Financial Secretary in August 1992. A report was issued in August 1994. The group has been renamed twice since the takeover. Now known as Top Glory International, its management has no links to the five in court yesterday. Two years after selling off BCIL, Bond Corporation had collapsed under a mountain of debt. Bond declared bankruptcy and served three months' jail in Australia in 1992 for dishonesty relating to his rescue of a failed West Australian merchant bank. He was acquitted at a retrial and released from bankruptcy after his creditors agreed to accept less than half a cent in the dollar on debts of nearly A$600 million. Bond is now facing an Australian court on charges of corporate fraud relating to the sale of a Manet painting. High profile figures at centre of complicated allegations of commercial crime DAVID TONG CUN-LIN, 47 Managing director of Pudong Development Holdings, a $1.5 billion corporation mostly investing in Shanghai property. Born in Hong Kong, he returned to the territory in 1988 after amassing a fortune in Taiwan. It was his firm Tomson Pacific that took over Bond's Hong Kong interests in June 1990 in co-operation with Stanley Ho. HSU JYE, 39 Film producer and former actress also known as Jade Hsu. An American passport holder, she is Tong's sister-in-law and operated a number of share accounts for Taiwanese companies and nationals in the early 1990s. With sister Hsu Feng, she manages Tomson Films, which produced Gong Li's Farewell my Concubine and Temptress Moon. ARTHUR LAI CHEUK-KWAN, 43 Hong Kong resident now acting as a consultant. Founder of Chin Tung Securities, at one time the fastest-growing brokerage in Hong Kong and which he wanted to be China's Morgan Stanley. The firm was overstretched in the crash of 1987 and was bought by Standard Chartered Bank, where Mr Lai remained as chairman. RAYMOND LAI CHIK-FAN, 47 Arthur Lai's older brother and Hong Kong resident. Now managing director of a small firm, he worked as managing director under his brother at his company, before and after it was taken over by Standard Chartered. PETER MOU CHI-LUEN, 44 Another Hong Kong resident now working for Asia Securities Group Global Limited. He was executive director of ChinTung's Taiwanese office at the time of the Bond takeover. He acted as broker for some of the interests represented by Madam Hsu.
