Court rules that former HKEX executive and consultant accused of bribing him must stand trial

Defendants’ lawyers had asked the judge on Wednesday to rule that there was no case to answer to and to dismiss the trial

Judge Gary Lam Kar-yan rules the defendants and their lawyers have to provide evidence and call witnesses in their defence starting Friday

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Richard Lum Chor-wah, 61, has been charged with paying a bribe to a former official of HKEX. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 7:30pm, 8 Sep 2021

A former executive of Hong Kong’s bourse operator in charge of vetting listings and a consultant charged with offering him HK$9.15 million (US$1.18 million) in bribes have a case to answer to, a court ruled on Wednesday.

Richard Lum Chor-wah, 61, a consultant, was charged with paying the bribe to Eugene Yeoh Kim-loong, 44, the former co-head of the initial public offering (IPO) vetting team at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX), by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) based on evidence presented by prosecutors during hearings over the past 14 days. Lum sought Yeoh’s support for the approval of 12 IPOs between 2015 and 2019, the commission said.

Judge Gary Lam Kar-yan ruled on Wednesday that Lum and Yeoh and their lawyers have to provide evidence and call witnesses in their defence starting Friday.

Eugene Yeoh Kim-loong, right, the former co-head of the IPO vetting team at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Photo: Handout

The duo was arrested by the ICAC in June 2019 and were charged for corruption and offering advantages to a public servant in March last year. Although HKEX is a public company, it also wears a different hat as a frontline regulator for listed companies. Its staff, therefore, are treated as public servants under the city’s anticorruption law.

Lum was also charged with helping Yeoh get a Hong Kong Jockey Club racing membership in exchange for approvals of new listings. The defendants’ lawyers had asked the judge on Wednesday to rule that there was no case to answer to and to dismiss the trial.