Key witness in ICAC case was fragile, court told

The chairman of listed company Semtech International Holdings - accused of perverting the course of justice - was worried the ICAC might have pressured his 'fragile' secretary into admitting something he or she had not done, a solicitor's clerk said yesterday.

But Frankie Chung Cheong-kuen told the District Court Derek Wong Chong-kwong did not believe his secretary, Becky Wong Pui-see, would act as a witness against him in the probe into his alleged market manipulation.

Mr Chung, a prosecution witness offered immunity from charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice, said Wong approached him for help on July 12, 2004, after his ICAC arrest on July 9.

'He said he was worried about Becky Wong,' said Mr Chung of C.K. Mok & Co. 'He said she was a very fragile person. He worried that under pressure, she would say she or he had done things that she or he had not done.'

The clerk said he had raised the possibility with the defendant his secretary might become a witness against him, but Wong replied, 'No way', and gave him two reasons. Mr Chung refused to divulge the reasons on privacy grounds.

Derek Wong, 37, his lover Mandy Chui Man-si, 25, and lawyers Kevin Egan, 58, and Andrew Lam Ping-cheung, 53, are accused of pressuring the ICAC into releasing Ms Wong, who was on the witness protection programme.