Updated at 4.49pm: An immigration officer teamed up with a senior Customs & Excise inspector to supply a man wanted in the United States with an illegally obtained Brazilian passport, a jury heard on Thursday.
Steve Lam Yuk-fai, who turns 43 on Friday, was accused of plotting with C&E Senior Inspector Philip Chu Hak-lan and Peter Chong Bing-keung, who last year lost an extradition battle, to obtain the passport.
Lam was also said to have possessed a false diplomatic passport purportedly issued to him by the Republic of Guinea Bissau, describing him as an economist whose resided at ''Solteiro''.
Prosecutor Peter Callaghan told the jury in the Court of First Instance that there was no such place as ''Solteiro'' and that it was the Portuguese word for the marital status of single.
Lam was further accused of plotting with Chu, now serving a four and a half year jail term for other offences, to transfer Sao Tome and Principe diplomatic passports to a person known to him as ''Arkadiy''.
Arkadiy, according to Mr Callaghan, was a federal agent of the United States sent to assist the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong in an undercover operation.