Former CY Leung aide Barry Cheung jailed for four years in fraud case, seen as ‘monumental fall from grace’
- Cheung, a former high-flying businessman, was found guilty over his attempts to keep his commodities market afloat by dishonest means
- Chief Executive Carrie Lam once described him as the ‘best non-official public servant’
A former high-flying businessman who Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor once called “the best” public servant has been jailed for four years for conspiring with his financial officer to defraud the city’s market regulator.
On Thursday, Barry Cheung Chun-yuen, a one-time top aide to former chief executive Leung Chun-ying, Lam’s predecessor, was also disqualified from acting as a company director for the next five years.
The 62-year-old was found guilty last week on a count of fraud and another of conspiracy to defraud – punishable by seven years in prison – over his attempts to keep his commodities market afloat before authorities shut down the platform in May 2013.
His then chief financial officer, Jacky Choi Tat-ying, 51, was given a lesser jail term of one year, in recognition of his early guilty plea and the help he offered to the prosecution in a case that has dragged on for years.
District Court judge Amanda Woodcock said the case was a “monumental fall from grace” for Cheung, who has made substantial contribution in public service as a pillar of the community, which made sentencing “more difficult”.
But she found there was a need to impose a deterrent sentence, since any attempt to manipulate the Securities and Futures Commission was serious.