Asset order against Peace Mark ex-chairman

The Court of First Instance has granted an injunction in bankruptcy proceedings against Patrick Chau Cham-wong, former chairman and executive director of collapsed watch retailer Peace Mark, to freeze proceeds from the sale of a property in Aberdeen.

The judge also criticised Chau and his family for not coming clean on the assets they own.

The assets in question are three properties in Robinson Road, Mid-Levels, and a home in Aberdeen, together estimated to be worth HK$60 million. Creditors of the company, which fell into provisional liquidation in 2008, are seeking HK$132 million.

A court injunction had earlier frozen Chau's three Robinson Road properties but before the bankruptcy trustees could discover the one in Aberdeen, it was transferred to another company, Richburg Group, owned by Chau's children. It was sold for HK$9.8 million last year. The balance from that sale has since been whittled down to HK$6.4 million, with the rest spent on Chau's legal fees and maintenance of other properties.

"...[T]here is a legitimate fear of a risk of dissipation of the proceeds ... by way of a gradual frittering away of the proceeds through payments of legal fees here and there and maintenance costs here and there," said Senior Counsel Paul Shieh, who is serving as the judge in this case.

"I am fortified in my finding of a risk of dissipation by the coincidence of timing. Every time there was an event concerning the properties, something happened to the bankrupt or his children."