Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) uncovered a scheme where bank employees conspired with criminal syndicates to issue false bank documents. These documents falsely claimed that several companies held over HK$37 billion in assets, which were used to persuade multiple Japanese investors to fund purported African investment projects. The total investment involved was 400 million Japanese yen (approximately HK$28.4 million at the time of the offense).
Five defendants have either pleaded guilty or been convicted in earlier proceedings. Today (August 6), two former bank managers were each sentenced to three years in prison at the District Court. Hu Wenhao, aged 38, and Chen Dezheng, aged 39, were both client managers at Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited during the incident. They earlier pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to defraud under common law and were together sentenced to three years in prison.
Judge Li Qingnian noted during sentencing that the two defendants had a premeditated plan, severely breaching their professional integrity and causing significant damage to public and investor trust in the banking system. The scheme spanned over 18 months, involved a large number of victims, and amounted to fraud of over HK$28 million. If the case had not been uncovered, the perpetrators would likely have continued their illegal activities, warranting a deterrent sentence. The judge set a starting point of six years' imprisonment but reduced it by half due to the defendants' good guilty pleas and voluntary assistance to the prosecution.
Three other defendants are still awaiting sentencing. They are Liang Haoxian, a 40-year-old former client manager at Standard Chartered Bank; Luo Wenhui, a 52-year-old self-employed financial advisor; and Gan Jiezhen, a 58-year-old manager at ADF Capital Limited (ADF). Liang and Luo earlier pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy to defraud, while Gan was convicted after trial of one count of conspiracy to deal with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable crime (commonly known as "money laundering"), under Section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance. All three have been remanded in custody, with sentencing scheduled for September 30.
The ICAC launched an investigation after receiving a corruption complaint. During the period of the offense, Hu, Chen, and Liang worked in Standard Chartered Bank's SME Banking and Priority Private Banking departments, respectively. Luo was a self-employed financial advisor, and Gan was a manager at investment firm ADF. Court documents revealed that between January 2015 and September 2016, the four individuals 鈥?Hu, Chen, Liang, and Luo 鈥?conspired with four foreign nationals to carry out the fraud. They used multiple fake certificates of funds and company refund acceptance notes to deceive several Japanese investors into investing over 400 million yen in ADF and related companies.
The false bank documents were signed by Hu and Chen, made to appear as official documents from Standard Chartered Bank. The defendants used these documents to falsely claim that Standard Chartered Bank had guaranteed ADF for acceptance amounts of approximately HK$450 million. They also fabricated that the foreign individuals involved held over HK$37 billion in assets, which could be used for various African investment projects. The four foreign nationals included two shareholders and directors of ADF (a Zambian and a South Korean), a Thai client of Chen, and a Japanese female company CEO. Meanwhile, Gan conspired with the Zambian and South Korean men to use bank accounts to launder proceeds from the fraud, involving approximately HK$55 million in money laundering.
The ICAC investigation confirmed that Standard Chartered Bank never held the substantial assets claimed for the foreign individuals, and all asset proofs were forged.
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