More land bought by Chinese Estates to be voided in Macau graft probe

The sale of eight more plots of Macau

land bought by property developer Chinese Estates for its planned luxurious residential project La Scala will be declared void by the Macau government, it was revealed yesterday.

This comes after the sale of an original five plots of land, at the centre of a HK$20 million corruption case between jailed former Macau public works chief Ao Man-long and Hong Kong tycoons Joseph Lau Luen-hung and Steven Lo Kit-sing, were declared invalid. Ao was jailed for 29 years for corruption and money laundering, following action by the Commission Against Corruption, while Lau and Lo face trial later this month.

In March last year, Chinese Estates' subsidiary Moon Ocean paid 642 million patacas to exchange nine small pieces of land it owned for eight pieces, with an area of 5,204 square metres, adjacent to the La Scala site, so that it could expand the gross floor area of the project from 392,505 square metres to 537,560 square metres. The Macau government approved the exchange.

Chinese Estates said it was taking legal advice and intended to make a submission to strongly oppose the decision.

Macau lawmaker Au Kam-san said he had complained to the graft-buster, questioning why the government still approved the exchange of land, after Ao was first jailed in 2008, knowing it involved corruption.

"The 2011 decision would be at the centre of dispute as Chinese Estates could think that the approval - made several years after Ao was jailed - misled the group into making further investment, believing the government had endorsed the land sale as legal," he said.