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SCMP Reporter

TSL founder sentenced to more than 3 years in prison vows to appeal, stage comeback
Jewellery tycoon Tse Sui-luen yesterday vowed to come back bigger than ever after being jailed for three years and three months for paying more than HK$170 million in illegal rebates to travel agents.
His son, Tommy Tse Tat-fung, was jailed for five years.
The tycoon's barrister, Joseph Tse Wah-yuen SC, said  his client would appeal.
'He says even if he loses the appeal, he will come back again and create another empire,'  he said.
'He has not given up and he  does not believe his chances are over because of his conviction.'
The barrister said he believed  Tse Sui-luen, 71,  would end up serving just two years because of remissions. '[He] also maintains he is not a thief, and his credibility is an important  virtue he will always defend.'
The barrister said the jeweller was very upset by the blanket media coverage of the case, which had depicted him as a dishonest man who stole money from the company.
Tse Sui-luen and Tommy Tse,  38, last month were found guilty of conspiring with three others to steal more than HK$3 million from the company, TSL, between February and December 2002.
Tommy Tse has been company chairman since 2000, when his father declared bankruptcy and stepped down from the post.
Their co-conspirators - finance director Chung Yuen-ling, 45,  chief executive Peter Gerardus van Weerdenburg, 47, and  promotions  manager Wong Ting-fong, 59 - were also jailed.
Wong was jailed for four years and three months, while the other two were jailed for three years and nine months.
In sentencing, District Court Judge Kevin Browne cited a scheme codenamed 'the James Bond Project' that had seen TSL offer HK$170 million in illegal rebates to travel agents between 1996 and 2005.
The payments were made through offshore companies to avoid tax.
To conceal the sham from Inland Revenue Department investigators, Tommy Tse and Van Weerdenburg claimed the money was paid for  business promotions provided by unrelated overseas promoters. Judge Browne said 'lies had become the corporate policy' after the defendants implemented the scheme to boost the business by luring more tour groups to the company's showrooms.
Commenting on the scale of the offences, Judge Browne noted it took up a huge amount of manpower and time to detect, in addition to the  vast public expenditure involved in such a prosecution.
Recounting the humble beginnings of the elder Tse, the judge said he had turned himself into a 'legendary' entrepreneur with only two years of primary education and a HK$3,000 loan in the 1960s when he started his first goldsmith store.
Tse Sui-luen founded TSL in 1971 and the company was listed in 1987. He had a heart attack in 1994 and four years later suffered big losses on the stock market, leading to the sale of some of his properties.
He was eventually declared bankrupt in 2000, but managed to have the bankruptcy order cleared in 2004 and became a consultant to TSL.
TSL's executive director, Erwin Huang,  was in court yesterday to support his long-time friend.
Mr Huang said the business was operating as usual despite suffering short-term losses from the case.



Tycoon to fight on despite jail term