Property tycoon Zeng Wei jailed for offering millions as bribe to former ICBC banker
Property tycoon gets 27 months after he admits trying to bribe banker to extend loan
Zeng Wei, the disgraced property tycoon who lived as a fugitive for more than two years, was sentenced yesterday to two years and three months in jail after admitting he had offered a HK$2.3 million bribe to a banker to extend the due date of loans totalling more than HK$2.7 billion.
Zeng, 51, appeared in the District Court after being extradited to Hong Kong on June 19 from Saipan.
His mere appearance was a change from 2011, when he failed to show up for his trial and wasn't heard from again until January, when he was arrested trying to enter the US Pacific territory with a false passport.
He pleaded guilty to one count of offering advantages to Derick Chan Po-fui, then head of corporate banking with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (ICBC) in October 2010.
Zeng's lawyer, Cheng Huan SC, told the court Zeng had indicated in 2011 that he would plead guilty and had offered to testify against the banker. He fled only because he thought his mother had had a heart attack shortly before the trial, Cheng said.
But Judge Sham Siu-man said: "His behaviour tells the court one thing only. He had no intention to help the prosecution at all."