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The High Court today (September 2) sentenced two men, aged 54 and 58, and a 40-year-old woman to between 9 years and 9 months and 12 years﷿ imprisonment respectively for conspiracy to defraud and other offences. Two other women, aged 39 and 49, were acquitted and released.
The court heard that the 58-year-old and 54-year-old male defendants were the chairman and the director of a listed company, while the other three defendants were former and current senior officers of the company during arrest. The five defendants conspired to use false invoices and sales records in order to boost the turnover that stated in the interim reports and prospectus, as a result, the company was able to fulfil the listing requirements and successfully listed on the Growth Enterprise Market. Subsequently, the company applied for listing on the main board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong and continued to inflate the turnover as published in the annual reports in order to facilitate the application.
Investigation by Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) revealed that the five defendants conspired to use false invoices and sales records to boost the turnover by $23 million in 2002 and inflated the turnover up to $300 million between 2002 and 2004.
After extensive investigation, CCB officers arrested the five defendants in August 2010. They were subsequently charged with conspiracy to defraud, false statements by company officer, conspiracy to publish false statement, conspiracy to use false instrument and other offenses. The trio were convicted at the High Court yesterday (September 1) and the sentences were handed down today. The other two defendants were acquitted.
Police remind all listed company officers to comply with the laws of Hong Kong, for instance, conspiracy to defraud. Perpetrators, upon conviction, will be liable to a fine of $5 million and 14 years of imprisonment.
Police Report No. 17
Issued by PPRB
Ends/Friday, September 2, 2011
Issued at HKT 23:59
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