Former Wheelock and Co managing director John Hung took HK$450,000 from a middleman who arranged for him to support a Jockey Club racing member's application for full membership, a court heard yesterday.
Hung allegedly took HK$250,000 in October 2006, and then two other payments of HK$100,000 over the following weeks from Joseph Loong Shun-ming, the middleman.
The evidence was heard yesterday at the District Court where Hung, 70, a Jockey Club honorary voting member, pleaded not guilty to one count of soliciting an advantage and three of accepting an advantage.
In October 2006, Mr Loong told Hung that racing member Joanne Wong Pui wanted to become a full member and arranged for the two to meet, senior prosecutor Jonathan Man Tak-ho said in his opening statement. Racing members have fewer privileges than full members.
After the meeting, Ms Wong transferred HK$800,000 to Mr Loong, who transferred HK$250,000 to Hung. Two weeks later, Hung filed an application for Ms Wong, acting as her proposer for full membership.
Hung subsequently received the two payments of HK$100,000 as loans. He received the second of those payments in cash and by cheque after meeting Mr Loong at a bar in the Conrad Hotel on December 1, 2006. When Independent Commission Against Corruption officers arrested Hung after he left the hotel that evening, they found an envelope containing 50 HK$1,000 banknotes and a HK$50,000 cheque on him.
When ICAC investigators asked Hung about the HK$250,000, he said Mr Loong had asked what he wanted after handling the racing member's application, and that he had replied with a request for a loan.