'Blackmail' victim handed over 100m shares to boost value of own company's stock, court hears
Ex-company chief claimed gangsters had scared him into transferring shares
Blackmail was not the reason the former chairman of a listed company transferred 100 million shares in 2009; rather it was part of his own plot to inflate the value of his company's stocks, the High Court heard yesterday.
That was the suggestion defence lawyers put to prosecution witness Hui Chi-ming, who used to head the Hong Kong-listed Sino Union Petroleum and Chemical International.
Hui had earlier testified that gangsters had frightened him into handing over 100 million of the company's shares in March 2009. He said that he was told one of the alleged blackmailers was one of Cheung Tze-keung's henchman - a name, he said, that filled him with terror as Cheung had a reputation for kidnapping and torturing wealthy people.
Koon Wing-yee, 56, former chairman of Easyknit Group, Wong Chin-yik, 61, Shum Man-keung, 59, Ng Chi-keung, 71, and Chan Kwai-nam, 62, are jointly charged with two counts of conspiracy to blackmail and one of theft. Wong also faces a charge of blackmail and one of possessing arms at the time of committing blackmail.
Hui contended that Koon had demanded the shares from him and had said Wong was a "follower" of Cheung and a leader of a "big circle gang".
To meet Koon's demand, Hui said, he bought 100 million shares from a friend, Zhou Aiguo, at HK$1.35 per share. Zhou had then transferred the shares directly to Chan.
Yesterday, Gary Plowman SC, for Koon, suggested that Hui was the one who prepared the transfer agreement signed by Zhou and Chan.