Roy Cho and two of his associates are out on bail, with a court hearing set for May 2020 in Hong Kong's biggest fraud case.
Roy Cho Kwai-chee, the alleged mastermind of a conspiracy to defraud Convoy Global Holdings to pay $11.4 million to acquire investment firm True Surplus in September 2016, has pleaded not guilty at a Hong Kong District Court hearing on Thursday, according to court documents.
Cho, the former executive director of Convoy, Hong Kong’s largest independent financial advisory firm, did not disclose that he was a substantial shareholder in Convoy and had major shareholdings in True Surplus (55 percent) at the time, as required by law. Cho received HK$57 million ($7.29 million) from the deal, according to Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
His associates at Convoy, chief financial officer Christie Chan Lai-yee and executive director Byron Tan Ye-kai, both of whom were accused of misleading the firm to acquire True Surplus, also pleaded not guilty and are out on bail.
The trial is set for May 4, 2020, and the trio face seven years in prison, if convicted.
