A director and shareholder of a trading company has been charged in a Hong Kong court with allegedly defrauding five banks of HK$89 million worth of letter of credit (L/Cs) facilities with bogus documents on business transactions.

Mo Yuk-ping a director and shareholder of Win Victory Holdings Limited, now faces 23 counts of conspiracy to defraud following investigations by Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

False documents

The charges allege that Mo conspired with others to defraud five banks by dishonestly causing Hong Kong Nam Hoi Enterprise Limited to apply to five banks for the issue of 23 L/Cs in favour of Win Victory.

To support the L/C applications, the conspirators allegedly submitted false documents to the banks, purportedly showing genuine underlying commercial transactions between Nam Hoi and Win Victory.

Funds released

As a result, the banks released a total of HK$89 million to Win Victory under the L/Cs.

The alleged offences took place between June 2001 and March 2004 and according to ICAC, the case arose from a corruption inquiry in relation to publicly listed Shanghai Land Holdings Limited.

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