After the largest investigation in history by Hong Kong's securities regulator resulted in no convictions, the Independent Commission Against Corruption will make another attempt at executives that allegedly defrauded local brokerage Convoy.
Hong Kong’s Department of Justice has applied to overturn the acquittal of the three former Convoy executives including ex-director Roy Cho Kwai-chee; ex-CFO Christie Chan Lai-yee; and ex-executive director Byron Tan Ye-kai, according to an «SCMP» report citing the ICAC.
Last month, the largest financial fraud probe in Hong Kong’s history, jointly conducted by ICAC and the Securities and Futures Commission, resulted in no convictions. The current appeal will not include the acquittal of a separate charge of publishing misleading information in Convoy’s 2016 annual report.
A hearing will be scheduled later, according to the ICAC which did not provide additional details.
Internal Disarray
According to local activist investor David Webb, Convoy is one of many companies with overlapping shareholdings that disguises real ownership in a group he called the «Enigma Network».
In addition to the latest appeal, Convoy is facing disarray in other areas including halted trading of its shares since December 2017 and a pending lawsuit against the aforementioned trio to retrieve HK$4 billion ($516 billion) of allegedly stolen funds initiated by the firm’s largest shareholder, the Tsai family of Taiwan’s Fubon.
There is also an ongoing boardroom face-off for control over Convoy between Fubon’s Richard Tsai Ming-hsing and founder of Shenzhen developer Kwok Ying-shing, the second-largest shareholder.
