Paul Chan not in clear yet over farmland row, warn lawmakers

Lawmakers could initiate an investigation of Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po despite a decision by graft-busters not to take action against him after studying a possible conflict of interest for two years.

Former legislator and accountant Mandy Tam Heung-man, who lodged the original complaint against Chan to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in July 2013, said the watchdog had informed her it had stopped the investigation - which centres on a row over farmland owned by Chan's family - without explaining why.

"It was disappointing that the ICAC did not give any reason as to why they had stopped the investigation, which had lasted for about two years," Tam said.

She posted the ICAC's response letter on Facebook yesterday in which the anti-graft agency said it had sought legal advice from Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung.

The controversy erupted in 2013 when it was revealed that Chan had owned 18,000 sq ft of farmland inside a new town development in Kwu Tung North - which could yield compensation close to HK$20 million when the government took it over.

Chan was a director of Statement Industries, the company that acquired the land 21 years earlier, until April 2011. His wife, Frieda Hui Po-ming, was one of three shareholders of Statement Industries until she sold her 37.5 per cent stake in October 2012 to her brother Hui Ka-lun for HK$2.7 million after Chan realised the land fell within a site earmarked for public housing development in the new town.

Chan's brother-in-law, who was once declared bankrupt in 2002, still holds the land according to a record search, despite an earlier pledge to sell it.