A BANK manager accepted thousands of dollars to approve false loan applications so he could bolster business at his new branch, the District Court heard yesterday.
John Lau Wing-hung allegedly evaded an internal audit system to loan a total of $381,000 to nine applicants who would normally have been refused loans.
The offences occurred soon after Lau was appointed manager of the Standard Chartered Bank's branch at the Hong Kong China City complex in Tsim Sha Tsui in 1989, prosecutor John Dunn said.
Lau, 34, who earned $12,000 a month, denied seven charges of false accounting and two of accepting money to approve loans.
Mr Dunn said a few of Lau's associates agreed to find people who needed instant cash loans, but were unlikely to be eligible under the bank's normal criteria.
They then supplied false information about the applicants' work histories and salaries which Lau slipped past usual vetting procedures, the court heard.