Poor English gave scam artist chance, judge told

Sa Sa International Holdings boss Simon Kwok Siu-ming's inability to read English was exploited by a trainee assistant who helped herself to nearly $25 million of his money, a court heard yesterday.

The chairman of the cosmetics giant took the witness stand yesterday and told the court he relied on Pauline Ang Su-wen to explain documents printed in English.

The trainee would routinely be asked to go through documents relating to pre-arranged matters.

'I would usually not pay particular attention to this type of document and would just put my signature on it,' he said.

Ang would also have to explain the contents of other documents to Mr Kwok 'because there would usually be some issue which required my approval', he added.

'Even when a deal had been struck and the document was merely about finalising certain terms of the deal, I would ask Pauline to explain to me the terms in English before I fixed my signature,' Mr Kwok said.

Ang had barely passed probation when she allegedly took US$3.2 million from her boss in July last year and put it in a Swiss bank.