Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has successfully prosecuted a director and shareholder of a trading company for frauds involving over HK$49 million worth of letters of credit (L/Cs) in bogus business transactions.

Mo Yuk-ping of Win Victory Holdings Limited earlier this week pleaded guilty to 12 counts of conspiracy to defraud at a Hong Kong court.

False documents

The court heard that between June 2001 and March 2003, Mo plotted with other conspirators to defraud five banks by dishonestly persuading Hong Kong Nam Hoi Enterprise Limited to apply to those banks for a total of 12 L/Cs in favour of Win Victory.

To support the L/C applications, the conspirators submitted false documents to the banks, apparently showing evidence of genuine underlying business transactions involving trades of plastic raw materials between Nam Hoi and Win Victory.

On the basis of these documents, the banks released, via the L/Cs, a total of over HK$49 million to Win Victory.

Disgraced tycoon

Mo, the wife of disgraced property tycoon Chau Ching-ngai, first appeared to face charges related to these frauds in a Hong Kong court back in 2004. At that time she faced 23 charges of defrauding five banks of L/Cs worth HK$89 million. She was released on bail at the time. Both MoYuk-ping and Chau Ching-ngai were directors of Win Victory.

In May 2004, Chau was tried in a Shanghai court for rigging prices in stock transactions and falsely registering company capital. He was subsequently found guilty and jailed for three years.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.