Two Hong Kong district councillors among trio arrested by commercial crime police over election expenses
- Three men accused of running HK$5 million fraud conspiracy involving campaign expenses, one also held for firearms offence
- Yuen Long district councillor Henry Wong reports he was detained, along with Kowloon City’s Lee Hin-long, on Sunday morning
Two Hong Kong district councillors were among three men arrested on Sunday by commercial crime police over their election expenses, with one of the suspects also held for an imitation firearms offence.
Opposition politicians Henry Wong Pak-yu, who sits on Yuen Long District Council, and Kowloon City’s Timothy Lee Hin-long, as well as a third suspect, were accused of making false documents to “cheat the government” out of nearly HK$5 million.
Superintendent Yip Wing-lam said three men – two aged 26 and a 29-year-old – were held in Yuen Long, Sha Tin and Hung Hom on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud in relation to expenses claims for the since-delayed Legislative Council polls.
Yip told a press briefing that police officers also found a large collection of imitation firearms at one of the men’s homes after seizing documents, computers, laptops and mobile phones from the three suspects’ premises.
Police said the arsenal included eight rifles, 17 pistols, imitation ammunition and a wooden bow and that one of the arrested men was also held on suspicion of possessing imitation firearms.
A police source identified Wong as the firearms suspect, adding the trio would be held overnight.
Officers said the group had declared spending HK$4.89 million on the election campaign, as well as receiving a HK$4.5 million donation from a company. One of the 26-year-olds held on Sunday was a former director of the company.
The force alleges that the group falsified documents as part of a plot to extract money from the government’s reimbursement scheme for Legco election expenses, through which they would have been entitled to refunds for legitimate spending.
“We have reason to believe that these three people conspired to make false documents, including quotations and receipts to claim expenses and cheat the government of its money,” Yip said.
The superintendent said the cash had not been reimbursed, but the focus of the investigation was on the falsifying of documents to achieve that end.
“Our concern is whether the documents involve elements of falsity, and our investigation showed that some items in their claims involved very large sums,” Yip explained.
According to local media, the pair’s election expenses claims stated they paid the company HK$960,000 for design and advertisement services on social media, a total of HK$500,000 for the drafting of two speeches, and more than HK$400,000 in image design and photography services.
He declined to elaborate on the approach officers had taken to defining certain bills for services as too high, saying the probe was still ongoing, and more arrests could be made.
Yip said: “It is a serious crime to use fake documents to get money, as it could constitute conspiracy to defraud, fraud or ... ‘using a false instrument’, and the maximum penalty is 14 years behind bars.”
The maximum sum that a team can spend on a Legco campaign ranges from HK$133,000 for some of the seats drawing on votes from trade and professional sectors, to HK$7.6 million for the District Council “super seats”.
Wong and Lee teamed up to run in the latter, in which millions of Hong Kong voters across the city can vote for a district councillor, and the top five candidates each win a seat in the legislature.
Democratic Party lawmakers Roy Kwong Chun-yu and James To Kun-sun, who both resigned this month over a Beijing ruling that immediately led to the disqualification of four colleagues, only spent HK$840,000 and HK$400,000 respectively for their Legco 2020 re-election bids.
The pro-establishment camp has questioned whether Wong, Lee and some other opposition candidates sought to inflate the value of their election expenses following the government’s announcement of a reimbursement scheme.
In a move to make amends for the elections’ postponement, the constitutional affairs minister promised that candidates would be fully-reimbursed for their declared expenses.
Wong previously said he “did not care” about the pro-establishment camp’s accusations.
A message posted on Wong’s Facebook page on Sunday read: “Wong and Kowloon City district councillor Timothy Lee Hin-long were arrested by police’s commercial crime bureau. Lawyers are following up on this.”
A two-minute video, live-streamed onto Wong’s page at about 6am, showed officers talking to district councillor Wong in his home.
“I’m an officer from the commercial crime bureau. This is a court search warrant, we need to search this flat,” a policeman was heard saying.
A police officer later requested that Wong stopped recording the video.
Under the Firearms and Ammunition Ordinance, anyone found in possession of an imitation firearm commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for two years.
An imitation firearm under the act is described as having the appearance of a firearm but not falling under its legal definition.
