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Jane Moir

Investment banker Kevin Lee Kwok-wing has been jailed for six years after his 'greed and a desire to make quick returns on the side' led to one of Hong Kong's worst stock market scandals.

Lee pocketed more than HK$50 million during a four-year run of graft and fraud.

His spectacular downfall and conviction may re-open the books on the saga, with the Department of Justice scrutinising potential cases against other key parties involved. The six-year sentence is a key victory for the Government, having suffered a recent string of defeats involving high-profile commercial crime cases.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday saw Lee's imprisonment as a forceful deterrent.

The sentence also outstrips the four years imposed on former stock exchange chairman Ronald Li Fook-shiu a decade ago after he took bribes in return for approving listings on the market.

Lee, 41, was found guilty on Thursday of 17 charges of taking and offering bribes of HK$46.58 million, as well as conspiring to defraud which involved profits of HK$4.4 million between 1992 and 1996.

The jury could not reach a decision on one charge, prompting prosecutors yesterday to lower the sum involved from HK$55 million to about HK$50 million.

At the time of the crimes, Lee was managing director of Rockefeller (Far East), a private investment firm with headquarters in New York. He took the bribes in return for buying shares during placement exercises.

Lee received kickbacks from AWT World Transport Holdings boss Alfred Lam King-ko, Styland Holdings' chairman Kenneth Cheung, Pacific Andes managing director Ng Joo-siang and Alexander Chan Fat-leung, managing director of Tem Fat Hing Fung Holdings, among others.

Mrs Justice Verina Bokhary said she had no choice but to impose a jail term on Lee which would reflect her 'duty to the public to deal with serious crime with due seriousness'.

One mitigating factor was that Lee paid back HK$47 million of the money.

'He was cleaned out to the very last dollar' in his bid to repay the money, defence barrister Lawrence Lok told the Court of First Instance.

However, at the end of the day, Lee's downfall 'had to do with greed and a desire to make quick returns on the side', Mr Lok said.



Corrupt banker gets six years in $50m scandal