A Hong Kong couple has been convicted of offering about HK$1 million in bribes to a former bank officer to defraud the bank at which he worked by securing loans totalling US$17 million with standby letters of credit (L/Cs).

Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigated the case and brought it to court.

Offences

Wong Mei-lan, was found guilty of a total of 11 offences, including one count of conspiracy to offer advantages to an agent, two of offering an advantage to an agent, four of conspiracy to defraud, three of obtaining pecuniary advantages by deception, and one of attempting to obtain pecuniary advantages by deception.Her husband, Tsang Tze-bun, was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to defraud and two of obtaining pecuniary advantages by deception.

Bank officer role

The court heard that at the time of the offences, Wong and Tsang respectively controlled two British Virgin Islands-registered companies - Waymax Holdings and Chinapro Pacific Limited.

Between October and December 1998, Wong had offered HK$643,387 and HK$257,022 to the then head of the credit department of BNP Paribas in Hong Kong as rewards for the former bank officer to process applications for credit facilities for Waymax and Chinapro respectively.

Wong had also conspired with the former bank officer to offer the latter a reward at the rate of one per cent or half of one per cent of the amount of the credit facilities granted by BNP for processing the two applications.

Reward

The court heard that between October 1998 and August 1999, Wong had conspired with the former bank officer to defraud BNP Paribas by dishonestly representing that two standby L/Cs issued respectively by two Bosnian banks - SAB Banka Sarajevo and Soko Komerc Bank - were genuine.Wong and Tsang were also found guilty of conspiring with the former bank officer and other persons to defraud BNP Paribas between November 1998 and August 1999 by dishonestly representing that two standby L/Cs issued respectively by Vanutu-based GSP International Bank Limited and Soko were genuine.

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