A great-grandson of influential Eurasian businessman Sir Robert Hotung has levelled accusations of fraud against the Ernst and Young accounting firm, a surveying firm formerly run by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, the government's director of audit and his own relatives.
Sean Hotung, 48, alleges that about HK$155.5 million is missing from family trusts he had not known about but of which he is a beneficiary, in a High Court writ unveiled yesterday.
He also accuses his father, billionaire philanthropist Eric Hotung, of acting "dishonestly" with lawyers and the surveying firm, C.Y. Leung & Co, to avoid stamp duties over land sales.
The firm made a "fraudulent and dishonest misrepresentation" in 1998 by grossly undervaluing land owned by a family properties and assets holding company, he says in the writ.
Leung was a director and shareholder at the time, but no longer holds any position in the firm, company records show.
Hotung seeks compensation from the defendants, which include Ernst and Young; audit director David Sun Tak-kei; gambling magnate Stanley Ho Hung-sun's sister Winnie Ho Yuen-ki; a cousin of his father, Ronald Ho Yau-hoo; and a nephew of his father.