CHINA: Scandal-ridden Sun Hung Kai co-chairman Thomas Kwok and former Hong Kong top official Rafael Hui are filmed making brief visits to the anti-corruption office

Record ID: 855072

  • Title: CHINA: Scandal-ridden Sun Hung Kai co-chairman Thomas Kwok and former Hong Kong top official Rafael Hui are filmed making brief visits to the anti-corruption office
  • Date: 11th April 2012
  • Summary: MAN BUYING MAGAZINES VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) HONG KONG RESIDENT SHIRLEY WU SAYING: "It (Sun Hung Kai Properties) can still maintain its reputation because it's been around for many years. The company was founded not by the brothers but by their father. It has a good reputation, if not, there won't be so many shareholders still supporting their stocks." PEOPLE CROSSING STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Cantonese) HONG KONG RESIDENT RAY WONG SAYING: "The incident has little effect on it (Hong Kong's reputation.) But you won't find corruption on the lower and middle classes, I think it only happens with the top-level people."
  • Embargoed: 26th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China, Hong Kong, China
  • City:
  • Country: Hong Kong
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2WUB9GIB01XMUM8KBV3CZVK2O
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A former top-level government official and Hong Kong property billionaire involved in one of the city's biggest corruption scandals visited the anti-graft agency briefly on Tuesday (April 10) morning.
    Local television footage showed Rafael Hui, the former No. 2 official in the Hong Kong government, made a brief stop at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
    Soon after Hui's car left, the co-chairman of Asia's biggest property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties, Thomas Kwok, also paid ICAC a five-minute visit.
    Thomas Kwok, his brother and the other co-chairman Raymond, and Rafael Hui were arrested on March 29 on suspicion of corruption, though no charges have been filed and they are free on bail.
    Local media reported that Hui and Thomas Kwok went to the ICAC on Tuesday to extend their bail, adding that Raymond Kwok had already visited the anti-corruption headquarters.
    The brothers are worth $18.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to Forbes magazine.
    Sun Hung Kai Properties has lost roughly $5 billion U.S. dollars, or around 15 percent of its market value since the arrests.
    The arrests have become the talk of the town and added to the scandals surrounding the Kwok family, which had a public feud in 2008 that ended with elder brother Walter being ousted as chairman.
    Thomas and Raymond, backed by their mother, claimed Walter was mentally unfit to run the business, claims Walter has denied.
    But some Hong Kong residents expressed their confidence in the property developer.
    "It (Sun Hung Kai Properties) can still maintain its reputation because it's been around for many years. The company was founded not by the brothers but by their father. It has a good reputation, if not, there won't be so many shareholders still supporting their stocks," 39-year-old Hong Kong resident Shirley Wu said.
    Others said the case did not harm the reputation of Hong Kong as a whole.
    "The incident has little effect on it (Hong Kong's reputation.) But you won't find corruption on the lower and middle classes, I think it only happens with the top-level people, " 48-year-old driver Ray Wong said.
    The investigation is the biggest case launched by the ICAC since it was set up in 1974 to root out graft.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register