Former chief secretary, Kwok brothers in court

One of Hong Kong's biggest corruption cases took a step closer to trial on Friday as Rafael Hui Si-yan, former chief secretary for administration, and the billionaire Kwok brothers of the giant Sun Hung Kai Group made their second court appearance on a raft of charges.

Hui, who served for two years in the government's No 2 job under former Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen from 2005, appeared in Eastern Magistrates' Court, and he alone faces eight charges, involving HK$34 million, in related graft complaints dating back to June 2000. Hui, who was also an unofficial member of the decision-making Executive Council then, is accused of accepting bribes of more than HK$28.6 million from the Kwok brothers and two other defendants, Chan Kui-yuen, executive director of SHKP; and Francis Kwan Hung-sang, a member of the senior staff at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Kwok brothers, Chan and Kwan were all charged with conspiracy to offer advantages to a public servant. Hui was alleged to have committed misconduct in public office by favoring the other four defendants and failing to report the conflict of interest, when he was managing director of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority, chief secretary for administration, and chairman of the Steering Committee of the West Kowloon Culture District Project.

Hui — the highest-ranking incumbent or former Hong Kong government official ever to be arrested and hauled to court on graft charges — is also alleged to have received an unsecured loan amounting to HK$5.4 million from a subsidiary finance company of SHKP between 2000 and 2009.

Hui is also accused of accepting rent-free use of two flats in Happy Valley.

The case which sent shock waves across the city's financial world, involves Asia's largest real-estate developer and also Hong Kong's largest publicly-listed company in terms of issued share capital.

No pleas were taken on Friday and Magistrate David Dufton granted the prosecution's application to adjourn the case to Jan 25 next year to allow it to obtain banking evidence from overseas and to prepare the case files.

The prosecution told the court it will hire a Queen's Counsel from Britain to assist in the proceedings.

Bail for the defendants was extended and remained unchanged, with Hui's bail set at HK$500,000, the Kwoks at HK$10 million each, Chan's at HK$5 million and Kwan's at HK$200,000. Hui and Kwan were also ordered not to leave Hong Kong.

Hui appeared calm, and smiled as he arrived in court on Friday, mobbed by the press, while Thomas Kwok declined to comment, saying the case was still proceeding.

The case first broke on March 20 this year when Thomas Chan, who was then in charge of land purchases at SHKP, became the first of the company's executives to be picked up by the ICAC.

According to graft-busters, all the alleged offenses took place between 2000 and 2009.

One of SHKP's projects at the center of the allegations is the massive HK$10-billion YOHO Midtown residential development in Yuen Long, which was solely developed by the property giant.

Nearly all of the 1,900 units at the luxury project, located close to the Lok Ma Chau border checkpoint, were reportedly snapped up within days of the sales launch in 2010 after much hype and fanfare.

It's alleged that top secret information on the sale of land for the development had been leaked.

Hui, 64, had also served as a consultant to the Sun Hung Kai Group before taking up the post of chief secretary for administration in the government, and had headed various public organizations after quitting the post, including chairman of the Mandatory Provident Funds Scheme Authority.