Recent ICAC Cases

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force (Police) and the Competition Commission conducted a tripartite operation codenamed “Iron Pact” last week (August 26 and 27), neutralising a building maintenance bribery and bid-rigging syndicate led by a project contractor. The ICAC and the Police arrested a total of 50 individuals, including the mastermind and backbone members of the syndicate, some of whom with triad backgrounds. The building maintenance projects concerned 27 housing estates and buildings across Hong Kong, with an estimated total contract value approximating HK$500 million.

During the joint operation, the three agencies conducted searches at 39 premises, including offices of project contractors and consultants, as well as residences of the individuals involved. Documents related to the building maintenance projects and accounting records were seized, and premises allegedly controlled by relevant triad for illegal activities were also raided. A total of 50 individuals, aged between 24 and 77, were arrested by the ICAC and the Police.

Following corruption complaints filed by the public regarding building maintenance, the ICAC discovered that a project contractor was suspected of securing multiple building maintenance contracts through bribery. After an in-depth investigation, major renovation projects for three composite and private residential buildings in the Eastern District, Wan Chai District and Yau Tsim Mong District were identified, with contract values approximately HK$200 million. The enforcement action successfully intercepted construction contracts that had not yet been awarded.

The project contractor, who is also the syndicate head, is suspected of bribing project consultants and some members of Owners’ Corporations (OCs) to secure the three major renovation contracts. The project contractor allegedly obtained assistance through bribery, including concealing the company’s conviction records in tender analysis reports to win the bids, and splitting the major renovation project into small-scale works to circumvent procedures requiring approval by the owners. As registered inspectors (RIs) are also suspected of failing to perform their duties, the ICAC has referred the matter to the Buildings Department for follow-up action.

During the operation, the ICAC arrested 10 individuals, comprising eight men and two women aged between 39 and 77, some with triad backgrounds. They include the project contractor, project consultants, RIs, chairpersons, and a member of OCs. The ICAC also seized cash valued at over HK$1.2 million from the premises of a project consultant, suspected to be part of the bribes involved in the case.

The Competition Commission’s operation concerns building maintenance projects of 23 housing estates and buildings spanning eight districts across Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, involving contracts with an estimated total value of around HK$300 million. Some of the project tenders have been overturned, while others have commenced or were already completed prior to the commencement of the Competition Commission’s investigation. The Competition Commission has been reaching out to relevant stakeholders of the buildings involved in the case.

The Competition Commission’s investigation originated from its search operation last August, which targeted a building maintenance project of a private housing estate in the Kowloon City District. After conducting an in-depth analysis of the evidence seized, the Competition Commission discovered that the aforementioned syndicate had allegedly engaged in anti-competitive conduct during multiple projects’ tendering processes, including disseminating pricing instructions (commonly referred to as “homework”) to its members so as to control their bidding prices. Through the coordination of a middleman, the concerned syndicate also collaborated with another bid-rigging syndicate by each arranging their own contractors to participate in the tendering processes of certain projects so as to enhance their chances of winning. Such conduct is suspected to have constituted bid-rigging, market-sharing, price-fixing and exchanging competitively sensitive information, in contravention of the First Conduct Rule under the Competition Ordinance.

During the operation, in addition to executing search warrants, the Competition Commission also exercised its compulsory powers to request relevant parties to produce documents and information, and to attend before the Competition Commission to provide relevant information.

On August 26, the Police also conducted raids on multiple premises in Kowloon suspected of being controlled by the relevant triad-related persons, successfully dismantling three illegal fishing-hitting gambling establishments and arresting 37 persons (25 males and 12 females), aged between 24 and 62, for the offences of “operating gambling establishments” and “gambling in any place not being a gambling establishment”.

Separately, the Police carried out an enforcement operation in connection with a case of “conspiracy to use false instruments” relating to building maintenance works and arrested three local males, aged between 40 and 69, who are respectively a director of a construction company, a structural engineer and a director of a contractor company. The three arrested persons are suspected of submitting 13 forged works completion certificates to the Buildings Department in July and August 2022 in respect of minor works at 13 residential flats in a housing estate on Hong Kong Island. The signatures of the RI on those certificates were allegedly made after the inspector had died.

The ICAC, the Police and the Competition Commission have successfully neutralised this building maintenance bribery and bid-rigging illegal syndicate. The three agencies reiterate their commitment to continue close cooperation in comprehensively cracking down on corruption, bid-rigging, triad activities, and other illegal acts involving building maintenance works. The three parties will also strengthen related publicity and educational efforts, providing guidance and support to relevant stakeholders to prevent corruption, anti-competitive conduct, and other unlawful activities from occurring in building maintenance projects.

The ICAC, the Police and the Competition Commission call on the public to actively participate in building management affairs and proactively report any illegal activities to law enforcement agencies. Stakeholders may refer to relevant information provided by the ICAC and the Police regarding building maintenance. For high-value procurement tenders, property owners should, in accordance with their actual circumstances, adopt the enhanced set of model “Non-Collusion Clauses” published by the Commission earlier this year, so as to further deter and penalise collusive conduct including bid-rigging.
 

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.
 

A shop manager of a fast-food chain, his wife and six “phantom workers” appeared at Tuen Mun Magistrates’ Court today (August 18) after being charged by the ICAC for allegedly conspiring to deceive the fast-food chain into paying wages totalling approximately $680,000 by falsely representing that the “phantom workers” had worked as shop assistants for over 1,500 days. Over half of the sum has been returned to the shop manager and his associates. The case was transferred to the District Court for plea.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. The eight defendants are Tsui Hin-po, 39, former shop manager of MOS Burger, his wife Chan Wing-sze, 28, and six former shop assistants, aged between 24 and 33, namely Wong Yin-yau, Cheung Wing-yee, Cheung Tsz-him, Cheung Hoi-wai, Lee Chung-yuk and Chi Hoi-ling. They face a total of seven counts of conspiracy to defraud, contrary to Common Law.

No plea was taken today. The case was transferred to the District Court for plea on September 8. Acting Principal Magistrate Mr Daniel Tang Siu-hung granted bail to all defendants.

MOS Food Hong Kong Limited (MOSHK) operates a fast-food chain, MOS Burger, in Hong Kong. At the material time, Tsui was the shop manager of MOS Burger’s Tin Shui Wai branch, responsible for recruiting shop assistants and preparing attendance records to calculate wages.

The charges allege that between October 2022 and June 2024, Tsui, Chan, the six co-defendants and other associates conspired together to defraud MOSHK by falsely representing that the six co-defendants were its employees; tapping unauthorised smart cards at the attendance system to make false attendance records; submitting false attendance reports purportedly showing that they had worked for over 1,500 days; causing MOSHK to pay wages totalling about $680,000 to them and to make MPF contributions around $60,000. After receiving the “wages”, they returned about $400,000 to Tsui, Wong and an associate.

ICAC enquiries revealed that Tsui and Chan allegedly recruited the six co-defendants to act as “phantom workers”, working as full time or part-time shop assistants either at the Tin Shui Wai branch or the Tuen Mun branch of MOS Burger. Tsui allegedly told them that they were not required to report to work but were required to return part of their wages. At the time of the offence, all six co-defendants held other jobs and had never worked at the MOS branches.

MOSHK rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by ICAC officer Carin Chan.

The ICAC earlier charged two technical officers of a property management company (PMC) with an offence under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) for using nearly 120 false quotations to mislead the PMC while handling various minor maintenance and repair works of a private residential estate, involving a total value of approximately $600,000. One defendant had already pleaded guilty earlier, the other was convicted today (August 18) at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts.

Yeung Kwok-san, 30, former senior technical officer of Harriman Property Management Limited (HPM), was found guilty after trial of one count of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, contrary to section 9(3) of the POBO. Yeung’s subordinate, Koon Wai-fung, 32, former technical officer of HPM, earlier pleaded guilty to the charge.

Magistrate Mr Eric Yao Kwok-sun remarked that the case was serious in nature involving a significant number of false quotations and breach of trust. The Magistrate adjourned the case to August 28 for sentencing, and remanded Yeung in the custody of the Correctional Services Department, pending his background and community service order reports. Koon was granted bail, pending his community service order report.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. At the material time, HPM provided property management services to Monterey, a private residential estate in Tseung Kwan O. Yeung and Koon were both posted to the estate to handle procurement matters for building maintenance or repair works. According to HPM’s guidelines, staff were required to obtain quotations from at least three contractors for any minor works valued below $20,000.

The court heard that between February and April, 2023, the two defendants awarded nearly 60 work orders to three contractors, with a total value of approximately $600,000. During an internal audit conducted by HPM, it was suspected that the duo failed to comply with the guidelines by not securing sufficient quotations before directly awarding these orders. Subsequently, they submitted nearly 120 false quotations to the company, claiming these had been provided by 17 different contractors.

The ICAC enquiries revealed that the documents were forged by the two defendants, and none of the 17 contractors had ever issued such quotations for the relevant works.

HPM rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by prosecuting counsel Bernard Yuen, assisted by ICAC officer Alen Ho.