Former Ocean Grand Holdings chairman Michael Yip Kim-po, 49, and five others were convicted yesterday of 15 charges over fake and overly expensive purchase orders for metal-processing machinery.
Also convicted were the one-time fugitive's sister, Yip Wan-fung, 42, project director Yip Wai-lun, 45, and three people appointed as directors of shell companies used in the schemes, Keith Siu Kin-fung, 34, Lau Hok-man, 58, and Tsui Pui-sze, 28.
The convictions came after an 84-day District Court trial that began on July 6 last year and heard evidence from 61 witnesses of a web of transactions involving two schemes and tens of millions of dollars between January 2005 and November 2006.
The six had faced 18 charges but three were laid as alternatives and they were convicted of 15, including conspiracy to defraud, publishing a false statement, theft, dealing with proceeds of an indictable offence and accessing a computer dishonestly.
The court heard that in June and July 2006, Ocean Grand Holdings' auditors asked Michael Yip to clarify certain financial matters during a meeting. He asked for an hour's break to make inquiries then fled to the mainland. He was arrested at the border on September 18, 2007, and has been in custody since.
He and other defendants subsequently appeared in Eastern Court on a number of charges arising from the same set of circumstances but entered no plea.