socialite's Associates get two years for fraud plot
Two co-conspirators in the fraud trial of disgraced socialite Mo Yuk-ping were sentenced to two years in jail yesterday. In the District Court, Deputy Judge William Lam Kui-po said Gong Beiying, 29, former director of Shanghai Merchants, and Tsoi Hon-chung, 55, former chairman of Ying Wing Holdings, had conspired with Mo and her husband, jailed tycoon Chau Ching-ngai, to defraud minority shareholders of Ying Wing Holdings by persuading them to buy shares in a shell company. The shareholders lost about $30 million, he said. Both defendants were convicted of conspiracy to defraud. Gong was also convicted of false accounting. Mo, 43, formerly general manager of Shanghai Land Holdings, of which Chau was chairman, was jailed for 31/2 years on Monday for conspiracy to defraud and perverting the course of justice.
WWF laments lack of vision on fish stocks
WWF Hong Kong criticised the government for its lack of vision in addressing unsustainable fishing, warning that its negligence would lead to irreversible ecological damage. The attack came in a letter to Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen, who has refused to meet the group about funding for a proposal that would turn the eastern waters into no-take zones and ban bottom-trawling.
'long hair' barred from centre over labour row
A Li Ka-shing-controlled comapny has won a court injunction to bar legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung from entering the Cheung Kong Center in Central. Mr Leung has been helping some 100 construction workers, who claim they are owed more than $80 million by a Cheung Kong subcontractor. Mr Leung said he would seek to have the injunction overthrown.
