More than eight years after one of the most wide-ranging fraud investigations, the Hong Kong Government is still sparing the blushes of the prominent businessmen involved.
The World Trade Centre affair was the biggest commercial fraud investigation of the 1990s, in which police searched the home and office of casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun in 1993 after he and business associates were alleged to be linked to a complex web of huge commissions and disappearing records. It was claimed that when Mr Ho and his associates bought a company from Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond, the true ownership was hidden in a maze of ways, effectively reducing the price they paid and leaving other shareholders out of pocket.
The deals involved both World Trade Centre and Tomson Group, of which Mr Ho was chairman and director respectively.
Mr Ho was neither charged nor arrested.
Fast-forward to November last year. All legal action ended in fiasco as all defendants were acquitted. A government action aimed at freezing $400 million linked to the deal also ended in fiasco as three mysterious companies based in the Caribbean won their case and walked off with the cash.
So one would think the investigation report that started the ball rolling should, when all legal smoke had cleared, be made public, yes? After all, the Government stated on July 2, 1994, when releasing an edited version, that 'it is intended that the remainder of the report will be published when the risk of prejudice has passed'.