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Niall Fraser

A court hearing into a dispute between the company run by assassinated businessman Harry Lam Hon-lit and Asia's biggest golf club will go ahead tomorrow.

The hearing, which will not take place in open court, is into US$27.13 million (HK$211.55 million) that the dead man's company, Digger Holdings, alleges it is due from Shenzhen's Mission Hills golf course.

On the eve of the High Court proceedings, a senior police investigator has confirmed the golf club connection will form a significant line of inquiry into the contract killing.

Former racehorse owner Lam, 54 - who earned the nickname 'Cigar Lam' because of his penchant for cigars - was gunned down as he ate breakfast with three friends in the Luk Yu Tea House in Stanley Street, Central, on Saturday last week.

His Putonghua-speaking assassin, who calmly finished his meal and paid his bill before shooting Lam once in the head as horrified diners looked on, is still at large and has disappeared on the mainland, police believe.

Hong Kong police will also meet the head of Guangdong Public Security Bureau's criminal investigation department, Zheng Dong, to discuss the teahouse killing this week.

Mr Zhen is expected in the SAR to observe an anti-terrorist attack exercise on Tuesday.

'Both Guangdong and Macau police have been very supportive and provided us with a lot of assistance. If it is necessary, we will mount a joint operation with them,' a police source said.

The source said police were pursuing several lines of investigation, including the possibility that the killer had fled to Zhuhai via Macau.

Organised crime detectives also say they have still not determined if a gun found days after the murder in a restaurant in the Shun Tak Centre, Sheung Wan, was the one used to kill Lam.

They believe that whoever left it there, along with five rounds of ammunition and several items of clothing, which match witnesses' descriptions of the killer, may have done so out of panic after seeing uniformed police officers patrolling nearby.

The dead man's lawyer, Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, confirmed that the action on behalf of Digger Holdings - of which Lam was a director - will go ahead in chambers tomorrow.

Mr Ho said separate personal legal actions relating to Lam's other financial links with the prestige golf centre - which bills itself on its Web site as Asia's largest golfers' paradise and hosted the world's top golfer Tiger Woods in November last year - would now be wound up.

It is understood Lam's financial position was not as strong as his lifestyle may have suggested.

His Rolls-Royce and the apartment where he lived were not registered in his name and he is believed to have had substantial debts.

Asked about the financial problems Lam was facing after the wealth he amassed in the 1990s collapsed under the weight of the Asian financial crisis, Mr Ho said: 'Like anyone, including the government, he was affected by the economic downturn. Many people lost out; it's all a matter of degree. The action against Mission Hills involves not an unsubstantial amount of money.'

Lo Mung-hung, acting chief superintendent of the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, which is leading the investigation into what Police Commissioner Tsang Yam-pui has described as a meticulously planned murder, said: 'At the appropriate time we will follow that possibility [Mission Hills] like all others.

'We need to catch the man who pulled the trigger before we can find out who ordered him to do it.'

In March this year Digger Holdings lodged a writ with the High Court alleging Mission Hills Golf Club had failed to pay it what was due in respect of an agreement with Digger Holdings to sell memberships on the club's behalf.

The sale of the corporate and individual memberships, worth US$60,000 and US$37,500 respectively, was agreed on in the mid-1990s after meetings between Lam and representatives of the golf club, according to the writ.

But in about June 1996, the court document says, the golf club asked Lam to stop selling the memberships 'to avoid competition' as the club was then 'aggressively selling memberships of the club directly to the public'.

The writ lodged by Digger Holdings goes on to say that at a meeting in the same month, Lam agreed to stop selling the memberships on condition Mission Hills paid him 'a profit equivalent to 50 per cent' of their original price.

At that time Mission Hills said it did not have the money, the writ says.

In its action, Digger Holdings alleges that the money had still not been paid by March this year. The company is claiming US$27,129,375.



Slain businessman's legal battle goes on