Rafael Hui & the Kwok Brothers: A Corruption Saga (Part 2)
International Business Articles
ONC Lawyers
Hong Kong
As a follow up to our previous article, “Rafael Hui & the Kwok Brothers: A Corruption Saga (Part 1)”, we now revisit the topic as the outcome has finally been decided.
The long anticipated result of Hong Kong’s largest corruption trial since its return from the British Government’s rule in 1997 has finally been determined, after a span of 131 days. The decision alone took the jurors five days, which attests to the difficulty of the case. However, before we discuss the result, we will quickly summarise the facts and backgrounds of the case.
Background
The case centres on a total of roughly 3.7 million USD (28.7 million HKD) in payments made to Rafael Hui between 2005, immediately before he took office as the city’s chief secretary, and 2007, shortly after he left. The payments were allegedly made by the Kwok brothers, Co-Chairmen of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (“SHKP”) at the time, and middlemen Thomas Chan and Francis Kwan. The defendants did not deny the facts of the payments, which were discovered by the ICAC in 2012, but instead disputed on the purpose of the payment. The defendants claimed that the 2005 payment was part of a verbal agreement supplementing a consulting contract that SHKP had with Mr. Hui. As the city’s second-incommand, our previous article mentioned the high degree of responsibility that Mr. Hui had, and the consequences should he be found to be guilty of misconduct in public office.
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December 2014