Tycoon Lim Por-yen is reconsidering his vow to return to Taiwan - made in the wake of losing his appeal against a bribery conviction.
The 84-year-old chairman of the Lai Sun group and former member of the Beijing-appointed Preparatory Committee failed to go back to the island on Sunday as he had pledged two days before.
A Taiwan High Court judge had rejected his appeal against charges of money laundering and bribing a lands official but reduced his sentence by one year to two years and two months.
'I'm not worried that I will go to jail. Why do I have to worry about that anyway, I am innocent,' Lim had said.
However, a secretary in his office said yesterday Lim had remained in Hong Kong and could not say whether he would return to Taipei.
Lai Sun vice-president Veronica Wong Choi-yuk said the chairman had decided not to return on his solicitor's advice.