Lily Chiang appeals conviction over HK$3 million scam

Jailed businesswoman Lily Chiang Lai-lei appealed yesterday against her conviction for a HK$3 million share-option scam.

In the Court of Appeal, lawyers for Chiang, 51, said her conviction, which resulted in a 3-1/2-year jail term, was "unsafe" because there was a "fundamental flaw" in how the District Court trial judge conducted the fact-finding exercise.

Chiang, the daughter of industrialist Chiang Chen and the first woman to chair the General Chamber of Commerce, was jailed in June 2011 for fraud, conspiracy to defraud and authorising a prospectus that included an untrue statement.

In passing sentence, Mr Justice Albert Wong Sung-hau had criticised Chiang for shaking investors' confidence in Hong Kong's financial system.

In June last year, Mr Justice Michael Lunn of the High Court dismissed Chiang's application for bail, pending yesterday's appeal.

Yesterday, Clare Montgomery QC, for Chiang, said the trial judge had erred in assessing the credibility of both Chiang and her personal assistant of 15 years, Yip Yuk-chun, who gave evidence against Chiang under immunity from prosecution.

Acknowledging that the appeal court normally would not revisit the facts found by the trial judge - and would deal only with points of law - Chiang's lawyer said this case was exceptional. "We say there is a fundamental flaw in the judge's reasoning," she said. That flaw, Montgomery said, centred on a question of timing.