Bank manager guilty of breaching POBO by disclosing ICAC probe into family member

A then bank manager charged by ICAC was today (August 24) convicted at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts of breaching the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) by disclosing to a family member that he was under ICAC investigation.

Lau Shui-ngo, 44, former customer services manager of Chiyu Banking Corporation Limited (Chiyu Bank), was found guilty after trial of one count of disclosing the identity, etc. of a person being investigated, contrary to section 30(1)(a) of the POBO.

In convicting the defendant, Magistrate Mr Tsang Chung-yiu noted that the spirit of Section 30 of the POBO is to prohibit any person from leaking information regarding ICAC investigations to prevent those under investigation from being alerted. The law therefore explicitly prohibits any act of disclosing ICAC investigations. The magistrate adjourned the case to September 4 for sentencing, pending the defendant’s community service order report and granted her bail.

The court heard that in late January 2025, the ICAC wrote to Chiyu Bank requesting information on an account related to an ongoing investigation. The letter was subsequently passed to its Tokwawan branch, where the account was opened. As the defendant was deployed to the branch at that time, and her duties included handling enquiries from law enforcement agencies, she was authorised to access the ICAC letter and learned that the account in question had been opened by a family member of hers.

Although the ICAC letter carried a reminder that the request and the information contained in the letter were confidential and should be carefully protected, and that disclosure of such confidential information could constitute a breach of the POBO, the defendant nonetheless disclosed to her family member that he was the subject of an ICAC investigation.

Under section 30 of the POBO, any person who discloses details of an investigation or the identity of a subject without lawful authority or reasonable excuse shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a maximum penalty of one year’s imprisonment and a fine of $25,000.

Chiyu Bank had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel Sabrina See, assisted by ICAC officer Paul Chiu.