Source:
https://scmp.com/business/companies/article/1677794/liquidator-runs-after-mistress-bankrupt-former-hk-chief-secretary
Business/ Companies

Liquidator runs after mistress of bankrupt former chief secretary Rafael Hui

"I have the duty to chase all assets of Mr. Hui to return to his creditors”

Eline Shen, 34, who was at one time the mistress of former chief secretary Rafael Hui, poses for a picture. A Hong Kong liquidator said he will meet with her to negotiate a settlement to get some money back for Hui's creditors. Photo: Handout

The liquidator who handled the bankruptcy of jailed former Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan plans to meet his Shanghai mistress to chase some or all the HK$7.5 million gift he gave her, the South China Morning Post has learned.

Mat Ng, managing director of JLA-Asia, the liquidiator who was appointed as trustee to handle Hui’s case after his bankruptcy in November 2013, plans to meet his mistress Eline Shen, to negotiate a settlement.

“As the trustee to handle the bankruptcy, I have the duty to chase all assets of Mr. Hui to return to his creditors,” said Ng, a veteran liquidator who handled many high profile liquidation and personal bankrupty cases over the past two decades.

Ng told the Post in an exclusive interview that under local law, the liquidator can trace any gifts or cash offered five years by someone who declared bankruptcy.

“The liquidator can trace these assets even if they are in the mainland. It may take a longer time to handle cross border cases but it is not a mission impossible,” he said.

He said besides taking back the gifts, it is also possible to reach an agreement with the mistress for her to keep the flat but then she has to pay a reasonable settlement amount.

“It is all negotiable and we hope we can reach an agreement,” Ng said.

Hui, 66, is now serving 7-1/2 years in prison sentence for accepting a bribe from former Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and former director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen. Both Kwok and Chan were also convicted.

The conviction and jail term of Hui would not affect the liquidator’s job, Ng said, adding he would continue to track assets of Hui and sell them to be returned to creditors.

Hui is believed to owe more than HK$75 million from at least five banks and was declared bankrupt by the Hong Kong court in November 2013.

The disgraced former No.2 official of the city confessed in court during the trial in October that he had spent HK$7.5 million on a young Shanghai woman with whom he started an "intimate" relationship in 2008. He gave her cash, properties, car, investment, handbags, watches and other presents.

The mistress, Eline Shen, a 34-year old former Dragonair flight attendant, told Chinese magazine East Week that she used the sum to buy a flat and an Audi in Shanghai. She met Hui at a dinner several years ago and secretly dated him for nearly three years until Hui stopped calling her after they last met in September 2011.

The assets of Hui’s wife under her own name would not be affected, Ng said. “The wife has no burden to shoulder the debt of the husband,” he said.

As a special type of assets, Ng is now handling sales of Hui’s entire music library, the fruit of a collection craze he started since the 1960s.

Hui, a music fan, has a collection of 10,955 discs - mainly vinyl LPs and Classical music but also some rock and pop discs, including prized Beatles albums from the 1960s.

The hobby cost him millions of dollars. During the trial, he admitted spending HK$200,000 in a single day buying albums, and going on overseas trips for opera concerts that cost more than HK$200,000.

"We have received over 100 bidders. Some want to buy the whole lot while some wants specific titles of the album. I believe we could find a single collector to buy the whole lot and the deal would be completed soon,” he said.

Hui also had owned several races horses and a HK$7 million wine collections. Hui sold the horse after being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 2011 while the wines were sold by the creditor before his bankruptcy.