Top executives of Moulin Global Eyecare Holdings have received some of the longest jail sentences for commercial crime in Hong Kong's history.
Ma Bo-kee, the former chairman of the bankrupt eyewear maker, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while his son, former Moulin chief executive Cary Ma Lit-kin, was sentenced to 10 years, both for conspiring to defraud and deceive. Former Moulin treasurer Michelle Lam Yuk-wah, a sister-in-law of Ma Bo-kee, was sentenced to 91/2 years.
Three other defendants, Or Tak-yin, Wong Ka-ho and Lam Chun-wai, who played a lesser role in the fraud conspiracy at the defunct firm, received lighter sentences ranging from four months to two years. 'For a crime of this case, I believe 12 years' jail is the longest in Hong Kong history,' said Audrey Campbell-Moffat, the lawyer leading the prosecution in the Court of First Instance.
By comparison, brothers Eric Tang Yiu-hong and Eugene Tang Yiu-chuen, both former directors of formerly Hong Kong-listed kitchenware firm GKC Holdings, were each sentenced to 10 years jail in 2002. Michael Yip Kim-po, former chairman of Ocean Grand Holdings, was sentenced to seven years' jail for fraud in October. James Ting, former chairman of Akai Holdings, was sentenced to six years in 2005 but was released on bail in 2006.
Ma Bo-kee, 66, founded Moulin as a sole proprietorship in 1960, shortly after arriving in Hong Kong as a poor young immigrant from Guangdong. The firm listed in Hong Kong in 1993. It went into provisional liquidation in 2005, was liquidated in 2006 and delisted in 2007.
In its heyday, Moulin manufactured spectacles for leading brands such as Revlon, and described itself as the world's third-largest eyewear maker. But the recently concluded two-month trial revealed the company inflated sales with bogus customers.