https://www.scmp.com/rss/329575/feed Emma Kazaryan is a multimedia journalist based in New York City. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping is expected to be sent to a minimum security prison after a US court sentenced him to three years in jail and fined him US$400,000 (HK$3.1 million) over a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving top African leaders. But Ho, 69, who delivered a tearful apology before the sentencing in a New York federal court, could be released as early as June next year. This was because Ho’s 16 months in custody was deducted, while his legal team... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3003231/disgraced-hong-kong-official-patrick-ho-gets-3-year?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3003231/disgraced-hong-kong-official-patrick-ho-gets-3-year?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 25 Mar 2019 16:40:57 +0000 Many remember Ho picking an ominous Kau Chim fortune stick during Lunar New Year 2003, the year of Sars. He went to the US to study music, but became a prominent eye surgeon instead, with a stint at Harvard. Former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping has now been found guilty by a federal jury in New York of offering millions of dollars in bribes to African officials, and now faces jail time in the United States. Orignal story by Alvin Lum and Emma Kazaryan The colourful life of Patrick Ho... https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2176861/podcast-colourful-life-patrick-ho-being-embroiled-bribery-scandal-scmp-long?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/podcasts/article/2176861/podcast-colourful-life-patrick-ho-being-embroiled-bribery-scandal-scmp-long?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 07 Dec 2018 06:45:30 +0000 A former Hong Kong government minister has been found guilty by a federal jury in New York of offering millions of dollars in bribes to African officials. Patrick Ho Chi-ping, 69, now faces jail time after being convicted Wednesday afternoon by a Southern District of New York jury. Arrested by US authorities in November 2017, Ho was found guilty on seven of eight counts of bribery and money laundering. Prosecutors alleged that he was involved in $2.9 million worth of bribes given to a state... https://www.scmp.com/politics/patrick-ho-convicted-us-bribery-and-money-laundering/article/2176668?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/politics/patrick-ho-convicted-us-bribery-and-money-laundering/article/2176668?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2018 10:00:45 +0000 For seven days, nine women and three men have sat in a New York courtroom with former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping, listening to the evidence pile up against him on bribery and money-laundering charges involving US$2.9 million. The hand-picked jurors were there to weigh all that was presented to the Southern District Court of New York and decide Ho’s fate. On Wednesday, December 5, they decided he was guilty of seven of the eight counts he faced. One juror, an older woman with grey... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2176616/knitter-and-latecomer-12-jurors-who-decided-patrick-hos-fate?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2176616/knitter-and-latecomer-12-jurors-who-decided-patrick-hos-fate?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 06 Dec 2018 03:18:25 +0000 Former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping has been found guilty by a federal jury in New York of offering millions of dollars in bribes to African officials, and now faces jail time in the United States. On Wednesday afternoon, local time, Ho was convicted by the New York Southern District Court jury on seven of eight counts of bribery and money laundering over oil rights for Chinese conglomerate CEFC China Energy, in Chad and Uganda. “Expected. It’s like that,” Ho told Hong Kong reporters... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2176601/patrick-ho-convicted-us-court-7-8-counts-bribery-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2176601/patrick-ho-convicted-us-court-7-8-counts-bribery-and?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 05 Dec 2018 19:15:45 +0000 Former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping could know as early as Wednesday (US time) whether he will be sent to an American jail on corruption charges. At his hearing on Monday, Ho, who served as the city’s home affairs minister from 2002 to 2007, exercised his legal right to remain silent and did not testify on the eight counts of bribery and money laundering he faces, sending the trial into its final phase. Ho is accused of offering US$2.9 million worth of bribes to officials in Chad and... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2176238/ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-could-know-early?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2176238/ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-could-know-early?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Dec 2018 03:30:45 +0000 Lawyers for a former Hong Kong minister facing bribery charges in a New York court on Thursday attacked a former top African diplomat – a key prosecution witness – for making unfounded claims that Chinese companies struck deals worth up to US$20 million with the head of his nation. Cheikh Gadio, previously a defendant in the case against Patrick Ho Chi-ping, admitted he regretted making the claims, and that he “went too far”. It was Gadio’s third day of testimony at New York Southern District... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175789/trial-former-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-hears-key?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175789/trial-former-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-hears-key?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 30 Nov 2018 07:23:10 +0000 Former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping apologised and said he was “impressed” by Chadian leader Idriss Deby’s rejection of his alleged US$2 million cash gift, a key prosecution witness told a New York court on the third day of Ho’s corruption trial. The president had felt insulted and disrespected by the alleged bribe, former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio said in his second day of testimony. Gadio, 62, had told authorities about Ho’s cash offer soon after he was arrested last... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175518/former-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-apologised-was?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175518/former-hong-kong-minister-patrick-ho-apologised-was?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 29 Nov 2018 05:19:21 +0000 A key prosecution witness in the corruption trial against former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping told a US court he had been “surprised and shocked” to learn that the gift boxes he helped the defendant deliver to the president of Chad had contained US$2 million. “I didn’t know there was cash in the gift boxes,” Cheikh Gadio, a former foreign minister of Senegal, said on Tuesday when questioned by prosecutor Douglas Zolkind. “I was surprised and shocked. Two million dollars in cash in the... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175329/key-witness-ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-hos-bribery?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175329/key-witness-ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-hos-bribery?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Nov 2018 01:57:21 +0000 Twelve jurors with the fate of detained former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping in their hands have told a US court they hold no bias against China. They were responding to questions from New York District Court judge Loretta Preska as the bribery trial against Ho began on Monday, local time. The jurors and three substitutes – 11 women and four men – were pulled from a roster of 50 people from the Southern District of New York, where the court has jurisdiction, and vetted before the judge,... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2175210/bribery-trial-former-hong-kong-home-affairs-minister-patrick?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2175210/bribery-trial-former-hong-kong-home-affairs-minister-patrick?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 07:31:31 +0000 This is a bribery case with no bribes, a lawyer for former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping told the court as his US$2.9 million corruption trial opened in New York on Monday. In addition to arguing that the sums Ho had given to various African officials on behalf of a Chinese energy giant were donations rather than bribes, the defence said that key prosecution witness Cheikh Gadio was testifying against Ho because he planned to run for president in Senegal. The trial began on Monday after... https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175119/ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-hos-us29-million?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/2175119/ex-hong-kong-minister-patrick-hos-us29-million?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:50:38 +0000