Thomas Kwok considered hiring 'Norman Chan' as a consultant, trial hears

Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong once considered hiring a Norman Chan as a consultant to Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city's highest-profile corruption trial heard yesterday.

But Chan would have cost as much as SHKP received each year in rent from the 41-storey Hong Kong Plaza skyscraper on Connaught Road West, his brother Walter Kwok Ping-sheung protested in a 2002 note shown to the High Court. Walter insisted Rafael Hui Si-yan get the job.

Walter Kwok, SHKP chairman at the time, wrote in the note that he could not "see the purpose and use" of hiring Chan, and asked Thomas: "Is it worth it?" He favoured appointing Hui, whom he called a "strategic thinker" who can "contribute to us". SHKP hired Hui the next year.

Clare Montgomery QC, representing Thomas Kwok, said the note showed "a debate between Walter and Thomas on the possibility of recruiting somebody from the public government sector to work for Sun Hung Kai".

Hui, who served as chief secretary from 2005 to 2007, is on trial for allegedly taking tens of millions of dollars from Thomas Kwok, now SHKP's co-chairman, and his other brother and co-chairman, Raymond Kwok Ping-luen, to be SHKP's "eyes and ears" in government.

According to Walter Kwok's note, hiring Chan would have cost the equivalent of twice the annual rental income from Kai Tak Mansion, Kowloon Bay, four months' rental income from Metroplaza, Kwai Chung, or three months' rent from Tsim Sha Tsui's Royal Garden Hotel shopping centre. The court earlier heard Hui wanted HK$375,000 per month as a consultant.