Ironic that a warning on HK air pollution references the HK EP department which is known to thumb twiddle and cover up the air quality problems.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Ocean Grand Chairman escapes fraud charge
Former Ocean Grand chairman cleared of fraud
Jury acquits Michael Yip of nine charges after five-week trial
Peter Brieger and Yvonne Tsui
Mar 20, 2009
Former Ocean Grand Holdings chairman Michael Yip Kim-po was acquitted of a string of fraud charges yesterday, with jurors rejecting allegations that he had engineered a massive accounting fraud at the company.
The Court of First Instance jurors deliberated for four hours before they dismissed the government's case against Yip in 7-1 majority verdicts.
Yip, the ex-husband of actress Gigi Fu Ming-hin, was cleared on nine fraud charges in all, including conspiracy to defraud investors.
Co-defendant Kwok Chi-ngai was unanimously acquitted on a charge of conspiracy to falsify accounts.
Prosecutors alleged that Yip and Mr Kwok, a former Ocean Grand sales manager, falsely inflated company sales through a bogus invoice scheme between 2002 and 2006.
The trial was told that the pair funnelled hundreds of orders through a web of Ocean Grand subsidiaries and outside companies.
The director of one of those companies was a man nicknamed Tarzan, who appeared to be Yip's bodyguard, a witness testified.
Prosecutors had alleged that the defendants faked a delivery to one of the companies as Ocean Grand's accountants investigated the transactions.
About 40 witnesses, including forensic accountants and Ocean Grand directors, testified at the trial.
Wong Man-kit SC, Yip's barrister, said outside the court yesterday that the outside companies had not been used to hide bogus transactions but had processed renminbi-denominated orders from Ocean Grand's mainland customers.
An accounting expert called by the defence suggested the foreign-exchange explanation near the end of the trial.
The Commercial Crime Bureau rejected that argument yesterday.
"The defence merely raised a possibility of this dual role as a foreign-exchange agent," an investigator from the unit said after the hearing. "They had never tendered any concrete documents or solid evidence to support their claim. They only presented it to the jury as a possibility."
During the trial, Mr Wong had portrayed Yip as a big-picture manager who left financial details to his underlings.
The defence argued that Ocean Grand's audit committee and its outside accountants signed off on company financial statements while the alleged fraud was going on.
Neither Yip nor Mr Kwok testified.
After the verdict yesterday, Deputy High Court Judge Colin Mackintosh granted Yip's request that the government pay his legal costs for the five-week trial.
Prosecutor Peter Duncan SC, who opposed the request, argued that Yip had never told police or company liquidators that the outside companies were used as foreign-exchange agents.
"If that explanation had been given to investigators ... who knows where this investigation would have ended up?" he told the judge.
Mr Justice Mackintosh ruled that Yip had no legal obligation to explain the transactions to investigators or the accountants who were winding up Ocean Grand.
Mr Kwok's request to have his legal costs paid was denied. The sales manager brought suspicion on himself by telling conflicting stories to explain why he had signed off on transactions at the centre of the fraud allegations, Mr Justice Mackintosh ruled.
The jurors would be excused from trial duty if they were called again during the next decade, Mr Justice Mackintosh said, citing the trial's length and complexity.
Yip was immediately remanded in custody on separate fraud charges connected to business dealings at the collapsed aluminium-products company.
Yip and four others, including his sister Yip Wan-fung, are scheduled to stand trial on those charges in the District Court in July.
Jury acquits Michael Yip of nine charges after five-week trial
Peter Brieger and Yvonne Tsui
Mar 20, 2009
Former Ocean Grand Holdings chairman Michael Yip Kim-po was acquitted of a string of fraud charges yesterday, with jurors rejecting allegations that he had engineered a massive accounting fraud at the company.
The Court of First Instance jurors deliberated for four hours before they dismissed the government's case against Yip in 7-1 majority verdicts.
Yip, the ex-husband of actress Gigi Fu Ming-hin, was cleared on nine fraud charges in all, including conspiracy to defraud investors.
Co-defendant Kwok Chi-ngai was unanimously acquitted on a charge of conspiracy to falsify accounts.
Prosecutors alleged that Yip and Mr Kwok, a former Ocean Grand sales manager, falsely inflated company sales through a bogus invoice scheme between 2002 and 2006.
The trial was told that the pair funnelled hundreds of orders through a web of Ocean Grand subsidiaries and outside companies.
The director of one of those companies was a man nicknamed Tarzan, who appeared to be Yip's bodyguard, a witness testified.
Prosecutors had alleged that the defendants faked a delivery to one of the companies as Ocean Grand's accountants investigated the transactions.
About 40 witnesses, including forensic accountants and Ocean Grand directors, testified at the trial.
Wong Man-kit SC, Yip's barrister, said outside the court yesterday that the outside companies had not been used to hide bogus transactions but had processed renminbi-denominated orders from Ocean Grand's mainland customers.
An accounting expert called by the defence suggested the foreign-exchange explanation near the end of the trial.
The Commercial Crime Bureau rejected that argument yesterday.
"The defence merely raised a possibility of this dual role as a foreign-exchange agent," an investigator from the unit said after the hearing. "They had never tendered any concrete documents or solid evidence to support their claim. They only presented it to the jury as a possibility."
During the trial, Mr Wong had portrayed Yip as a big-picture manager who left financial details to his underlings.
The defence argued that Ocean Grand's audit committee and its outside accountants signed off on company financial statements while the alleged fraud was going on.
Neither Yip nor Mr Kwok testified.
After the verdict yesterday, Deputy High Court Judge Colin Mackintosh granted Yip's request that the government pay his legal costs for the five-week trial.
Prosecutor Peter Duncan SC, who opposed the request, argued that Yip had never told police or company liquidators that the outside companies were used as foreign-exchange agents.
"If that explanation had been given to investigators ... who knows where this investigation would have ended up?" he told the judge.
Mr Justice Mackintosh ruled that Yip had no legal obligation to explain the transactions to investigators or the accountants who were winding up Ocean Grand.
Mr Kwok's request to have his legal costs paid was denied. The sales manager brought suspicion on himself by telling conflicting stories to explain why he had signed off on transactions at the centre of the fraud allegations, Mr Justice Mackintosh ruled.
The jurors would be excused from trial duty if they were called again during the next decade, Mr Justice Mackintosh said, citing the trial's length and complexity.
Yip was immediately remanded in custody on separate fraud charges connected to business dealings at the collapsed aluminium-products company.
Yip and four others, including his sister Yip Wan-fung, are scheduled to stand trial on those charges in the District Court in July.
Friday, March 20, 2009
French revolution 2009
Nic the little napoleon has his hands full.. whose head will they guillotine off?
A Grand Field of shenanigans - would you invest in this crap?
Grand Field founder sues directors over transactions
Legal action employs rarely used section of company law
Nick Gentle and Peter Brieger
Mar 20, 2009
In what is believed to be the first action of its kind in Hong Kong, the directors of listed Grand Field Group Holdings are being sued by a shareholder who is acting on behalf of the property developer.
A writ filed in the High Court on Wednesday used a rarely employed section of the Companies Ordinance that allowed company founder Wayland Tsang Wai-lun to launch the action over a series of allegedly improper transactions on behalf of Grand Field.
Tsang had to convince the court that his serious allegations against eight Grand Field directors, including chairman Chu King-fai, would be in the interests of the company before it could proceed, said Phillip Nunn, a lead partner for the case at solicitors Huen Wong & Co.
"Before [laws that allowed this kind of lawsuit] it would have been very difficult for an individual shareholder to bring such an action for misfeasance against the directors of a company," Mr Nunn said.
Tsang and his wife, Nancy Kwok Wai-man, who hold 22 per cent of Grand Field shares, were forced to step down as company directors in July 2007, just two weeks before they were charged with defrauding shareholders by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The couple has been engaged in litigation with the board ever since, and needed special permission from the High Court to bring this week's action.
The writ alleges Mr Chu and seven other present and former directors approved the transfer of HK$70 million to an illegally registered Shenzhen company.
Some of that money ended up in the hands of companies indirectly controlled by Grand Field's chairman, it alleged.
Mr Chu, the writ says, gave the directors sums of money, disguised as payments for expenses or overtime, so they would approve the payments.
The named directors were Huang Bing-huang, Vincent Au Kwok-chuen, Hwang Ho-tyan, Zhao Juqun, Yang Biao, Wong Yun-kuen and Mok King-tong.
In December, Grand Field filed a writ against the couple, alleging they defrauded shareholders and company directors.
The Tsangs, who were also accused of lying to stock market regulators, allegedly told the exchange that Grand Field wanted to issue 315 million new shares to finance an investment in a HK$63 million Chongqing gas pipeline project.
But that deal never existed, according to the allegations. The couple also sold Grand Field's Chintex unit at a loss to keep market regulators from probing the pipeline deal, according to the lawsuit.
Also charged in connection with the case was Li Tai-pang, former representative of Sino Richest; Charles Cheng Kai-ming, executive director of locally listed financial services provider Upbest Group; George Li Kwok-cheung, executive director of Upbest; and David Wong Wai-kwong, an independent director at Upbest.
Legal action employs rarely used section of company law
Nick Gentle and Peter Brieger
Mar 20, 2009
In what is believed to be the first action of its kind in Hong Kong, the directors of listed Grand Field Group Holdings are being sued by a shareholder who is acting on behalf of the property developer.
A writ filed in the High Court on Wednesday used a rarely employed section of the Companies Ordinance that allowed company founder Wayland Tsang Wai-lun to launch the action over a series of allegedly improper transactions on behalf of Grand Field.
Tsang had to convince the court that his serious allegations against eight Grand Field directors, including chairman Chu King-fai, would be in the interests of the company before it could proceed, said Phillip Nunn, a lead partner for the case at solicitors Huen Wong & Co.
"Before [laws that allowed this kind of lawsuit] it would have been very difficult for an individual shareholder to bring such an action for misfeasance against the directors of a company," Mr Nunn said.
Tsang and his wife, Nancy Kwok Wai-man, who hold 22 per cent of Grand Field shares, were forced to step down as company directors in July 2007, just two weeks before they were charged with defrauding shareholders by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The couple has been engaged in litigation with the board ever since, and needed special permission from the High Court to bring this week's action.
The writ alleges Mr Chu and seven other present and former directors approved the transfer of HK$70 million to an illegally registered Shenzhen company.
Some of that money ended up in the hands of companies indirectly controlled by Grand Field's chairman, it alleged.
Mr Chu, the writ says, gave the directors sums of money, disguised as payments for expenses or overtime, so they would approve the payments.
The named directors were Huang Bing-huang, Vincent Au Kwok-chuen, Hwang Ho-tyan, Zhao Juqun, Yang Biao, Wong Yun-kuen and Mok King-tong.
In December, Grand Field filed a writ against the couple, alleging they defrauded shareholders and company directors.
The Tsangs, who were also accused of lying to stock market regulators, allegedly told the exchange that Grand Field wanted to issue 315 million new shares to finance an investment in a HK$63 million Chongqing gas pipeline project.
But that deal never existed, according to the allegations. The couple also sold Grand Field's Chintex unit at a loss to keep market regulators from probing the pipeline deal, according to the lawsuit.
Also charged in connection with the case was Li Tai-pang, former representative of Sino Richest; Charles Cheng Kai-ming, executive director of locally listed financial services provider Upbest Group; George Li Kwok-cheung, executive director of Upbest; and David Wong Wai-kwong, an independent director at Upbest.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Another chairman disappears in China
Head of East Star ‘missing’: reports
Reuters in Beijing
12:14pm, Mar 18, 2009
Air China (SEHK: 0753, announcements, news) ’s acquisition bid for East Star Airlines, a small struggling carrier, has been thrown into confusion after the East Star chairman went missing, domestic media and the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
An Air China news department official told the China Securities Journal that the flag carrier’s merger offer had yet to receive a reply from East Star, a private airline that has been grounded because of unpaid debts.
The official securities newspaper said that an anonymous letter from East Star stated that its chairman, Lan Shili, could not be accounted for.
Caijing, a financial magazine, reported on its website that Lan Shili had been placed under house detention after East Star’s operating licence was suspended on Sunday.
The Financial Times also said Lan Shili had “disappeared”.
Air China and East Star officials were not immediately available for comment.
Air China chairman Kong Dong said earlier this week that the flag carrier would press ahead with its planned acquisition of East Star, which is based in the central city of Wuhan and has a fleet of nine aircraft.
Slumping air traffic due to slowing domestic demand has made it difficult for mainland’s small private airlines to compete with state-owned Air China, China Eastern (SEHK: 0670) and China Southern.
Since December, China Eastern and China Southern have announced plans to receive a total of 10 billion yuan (HK$11.35 billion) in cash injections from the government to help them ride out the slump. Private carriers do not enjoy such support.
Reuters in Beijing
12:14pm, Mar 18, 2009
Air China (SEHK: 0753, announcements, news) ’s acquisition bid for East Star Airlines, a small struggling carrier, has been thrown into confusion after the East Star chairman went missing, domestic media and the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
An Air China news department official told the China Securities Journal that the flag carrier’s merger offer had yet to receive a reply from East Star, a private airline that has been grounded because of unpaid debts.
The official securities newspaper said that an anonymous letter from East Star stated that its chairman, Lan Shili, could not be accounted for.
Caijing, a financial magazine, reported on its website that Lan Shili had been placed under house detention after East Star’s operating licence was suspended on Sunday.
The Financial Times also said Lan Shili had “disappeared”.
Air China and East Star officials were not immediately available for comment.
Air China chairman Kong Dong said earlier this week that the flag carrier would press ahead with its planned acquisition of East Star, which is based in the central city of Wuhan and has a fleet of nine aircraft.
Slumping air traffic due to slowing domestic demand has made it difficult for mainland’s small private airlines to compete with state-owned Air China, China Eastern (SEHK: 0670) and China Southern.
Since December, China Eastern and China Southern have announced plans to receive a total of 10 billion yuan (HK$11.35 billion) in cash injections from the government to help them ride out the slump. Private carriers do not enjoy such support.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Xming & Putty
Serve linux apps on a windows machine.
update X0.hosts file ( in the Xming program directory)
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