Hong Kong businessman’s widow clears husband’s name on his behalf in HK$53.5 million fraud case
Former CY Foundation chairman Theodore Cheng fought 2012 conviction to last breath, but did not live to see trial at Court of Final Appeal
The widow of a listed company’s former chairman has succeeded in getting her late husband’s conviction reversed, nearly a year after the city’s top court permitted her to carry on an appeal on his behalf.
The latest ruling came after Theodore Cheng Chee-tock, who had fought to clear his name until his last breath, passed away in 2014.
Cheng, former chairman of CY Foundation Group, was convicted of defrauding the firm in a HK$53.5 million property transaction in 2012 and spent five months in jail.
READ MORE: Ex-chairman of CY Foundation Theodore Cheng guilty of fraud
After his release and the Court of Appeal’s dismissal of his appeal, Cheng, nephew of former National People’s Congress Standing Committee vice-chairman Cheng Siwei, was allowed to challenge his conviction at the Court of Final Appeal in August 2014. But he did not make it to see the trial and died in December the same year.
Cheng’s widow Leonora Yung then decided to continue her late husband’s unfinished legal battle.
After a hearing before the top court in June last year, it was ordered on Yung’s application that she be made a party to the appeal in her capacity as the personal representative of Cheng’s estate in substitution for Cheng. The appeal was continued in her name.
READ MORE: C.Y. Foundation’s ex-chairman jailed over Wan Chai property fraud
In a judgment handed down on Monday, five top judges at the court unanimously allowed the appeal and quashed Cheng’s conviction.