Financial veteran George Lee, who has lost a lot of weight, pleaded guilty last Thursday and was released on bail pending sentencing without being remanded in custody. He arrived at the high court the next day wearing a red tie and appeared confident as he graciously allowed reporters to take photos of him. Before the trial, he was still laughing and joking with his lawyer and family members. Judge Peck said, "As the chairman of the company, you knowingly allowed and agreed to the publication of false accounts, and therefore you bear great responsibility. However, the judge accepted the plea of Mr. Lee's lawyer, Mr. Kim Lik-sang, who said that the case had dragged on for more than a decade and that Mr. Lee was suffering from diabetes, heart disease and depression, so he halved the starting point of two years' imprisonment and sentenced him to one year in jail. When he heard that he was sentenced to jail, he was shocked. However, he quickly got his emotions under control, and then folded his arms, rested his chin, and coldly watched as the judge read out the reasons for the sentence. He hadn't expected to be imprisoned, and he had already arranged for a German banker to go away on business the following month. In fact, he had spent the last twelve years fighting the government to the bitter end by hiring Jonathan Caplan, QC, Alexander King, Barrister and Michael Lunn, who had been the defense counsel in the Chia-ning case and was now a judge in the High Court. Mrs. Lee Ming-chi, who had been waiting in the gallery, initially wept in a low voice after hearing the verdict, then bawled her eyes out, and finally fainted, vomited and had convulsions, in a scene of sadness and sorrow. Her daughter Lee Suk-wai, son-in-law Chan Yuk-kai and youngest son Lee Shing-wong stayed by her side. At the moment before she was escorted away, she called out softly to Shirley at the prisoner's pen, and then handed over several $1,000 bills, a piece of red paper and her mobile phone to a woman and whispered in her ear for a while. This pretty woman, Chuang Shuk-yin, 49 years old, was a close friend of George Lee. She used to work for Shenyin Wanguo and is now the chairman and major shareholder of China Networks, which owns 9% of the United Group. When Mr. Lee was allowed to go out on a 25 million yuan guarantee in 1998, Ms. Chong was one of the guarantors. She got along well with Mr. Lee's family, and the flat she stayed in, the one on the lower floor of his penthouse, is the same as the one on the upper floor of his flat. Born in Malaysia in 1938, he studied civil engineering at the University of Sydney in Australia. In the early 1980s, he founded Sunshine Australia. His use of sophisticated trading techniques to grow the company upset the Australian Securities Commission, which ordered a suspension of trading in Sunshine's shares and a hearing. In 1986, the company moved to Hong Kong.
Building the United Kingdom in a hurry, he quickly established himself in Hong Kong because of his ruthlessness, speed and boldness. In 1987, he used A$100 million in one day to buy the old Star Ballroom (now the Royal Hyatt Hotel) in Wan Chai, Union Square in Mongkok and the Gloucester Road site. On the day he bought the old Star Ballroom, it was a rainy day and Lee Ming-chi just got off the plane and went into the construction site in the dark to inspect the site. In order not to give his rivals a chance to counter-offer, Mr. LEE did not make any counter-offer before buying the site. In just half a year, he sold the site for $180 million, netting him $100 million. The Gloucester Road site was also developed into the United Kajima Building in collaboration with the Japanese-owned Kajima Group, which became the flagship property of the United Group. In 1994, United Properties sold the first and second phases of the development and realized $2.2 billion. The third phase of the development was kept for rent. In 1994, United Properties sold Phases I and II of Laguna Verde for a profit of $2.2 billion. Phase III of Laguna Verde was kept for rent, and it was once the tallest residence in Asia. However, Lee Ming-chi has now moved out, and the flat was released for rent in May this year. After coming to Hong Kong in 1986, he soon came into contact with the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). In 1987, Mr. Lee and his two directors bought 35% of the shares of Siu On Properties, but did not disclose that the three of them were unanimous, so as to avoid a full takeover. As a result, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) named him as a violator of the Takeovers Code. However, this did not stop the rapid expansion of the United Department, under the continuous acquisition, Lee Ming-chi's United Department of the Kingdom at its heyday **** 10 listed companies, engaged in real estate, securities, steel and printing and other businesses. The reason for the rapid growth of the joint system is related to the invention of the "cheque wheel" by Lee Ming-chi, Tse Chu-hui, the former finance director of the United Group, and Chen Chun-an, a former director of the United Group who has fled to Taiwan, which has been described by some financial financiers as a precedent-setting move in the past year.
Offshore private banks, for example, in March 1991, the United Group placed United Properties shares at $1.40 each in a first-in-first-out, first-in-new way to raise 198 million, and the United Group first sold the old shares to an independent third party, the proceeds of which should have gone to United Properties to subscribe for the new shares. However, on the same day that the United Group paid the amount of the subscription shares by cheque to United Properties, United Properties simultaneously issued a cheque for the same amount to First South China Bank. This First South China Bank is a bank registered in Cook Island, New Zealand. According to the 1993 government report on the investigation of United Land, this bank does not provide banking services to the general public, but is a bank for the exclusive use of the United Land and the private company of Mr. Lee Ming Chee. In other words, only George Lee knew how the money flowed after United Properties had passed the checks. United Properties, which had the largest amount of cash in the company, "deposited" the funds in this private bank, and then the bank "loaned" the funds to its parent company, United Group, and to Meiji Lee, for the purpose of staging acquisitions and acquisitions of additional shares. As these were loans and deposits, the United Department did not have to disclose these related transactions, and instead, huge amounts of short-term "deposits" appeared in the annual report of United Properties. The so-called "deposits" and "transfers" were in fact only recorded in the annual report, thus inflating the value of the whole system's assets.
The trigger for the investigation of the Joint Liaison Office was the incumbent legislator Mr. Chim Pui-chung's "underhandedness", who was happy to challenge the law. In 1991, Mr. Chim sold 30% of the shares in Wealthy to Mr. Lee Ming-chi, who never disclosed his interest in Wealthy, while retaining only a small amount of the shares. In early 1992, Weiyi purchased Redhill Peninsula from United Properties for $285 million, which required a large percentage of rights issue financing, causing dissatisfaction of the minority shareholder Mr. Chim Pui-chung, who wrote to the Stock Exchange to report that Mr. Lee Ming-chi was a major shareholder of Weiyi, and was then investigated by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). When it comes to Lee Ming-chi's imprisonment, Mr. Chim Pui-chung said, "Ming Tee is sober, he must have talked to the government before he confessed to the crime. What's the point of going to jail? Or he thought he was misled! These are all destiny." This veteran of conspiracy to commit blackmail was once imprisoned, and he also gave a "heartfelt" advice to Lee Ming-chi: "After deducting the vacation time, you will only be in jail for eight months, so take a rest! In August 1992, the then Financial Secretary Hamish MacLehose appointed Nip Ah Lun, a partner of Coopers & Lybrand, to conduct an investigation. In September, the Commercial Crime Bureau dispatched 300 blue hats to search for companies connected with the United Group. In the face of the government's high-profile measures, Mr. Lee remained calm and quickly sold five listed companies in less than a year, including the sale of Dongrong Steel to Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited, and realized nearly $1.1 billion in cash. In 1993, when attending a gathering of the American Chamber of Commerce, he was still very flirtatious and made "out-of-the-box" remarks to teach the "foreigners" present how to do business in the mainland, and he went so far as to say, "The law is not the same thing. He even hinted that bribery works, "Don't call it bribery, but financial assistance, and the most important thing is to be sure that you won't be investigated."
Strongman full of inferiority complex Lee Ming-chi was also not bent on a hard fight with the government. At the beginning of the investigation, he brought in prominent members of the community to sit on the board of directors of the United Faculty of Commerce, including former Jockey Club chairman Mak Yun-lee, former Airport Authority chairman Wong Po-hyun, and former legislator Lau Wah-sum, in order to keep the company's reputation intact. After the government released the findings of the investigation in 1993, he resigned from all his positions in the company, leaving the day-to-day operations to be handled by his eldest son, Shing Fai, with his daughter, Shuhui, as a non-executive director of the United Group, and his youngest son, Shing Wong, as the chairman of the Malaysian-listed company, Mulpha. With this arrangement, the United Group will continue to operate as usual after Lee's imprisonment. This "vision" is the biggest difference between him and other jailed company chairmen. However, the United Family is not as active as it used to be. Even Mr. Lee himself has kept a low profile over the past six years while the trial continues. Even his daughter, Lee Suk-wai, had a low-key wedding in 1999, inviting only a dozen or so friends and family members to the ceremony. It is said that George Lee's lifelong love of battling with regulators stems from his low self-esteem. A businessman who has worked with him said: "He has a very strong sense of inferiority, and he often feels that he is a marabou and is being 'shrimped', so he loves to take advantage of the legal loopholes, and he finds it very enjoyable.
The classic case - the Li Mingzhi case, the complexity of the case, the length of the trial and the number of witnesses and exhibits, although rare in recent years, still failed to break the record set in the case of Li Mingzhi, and the drama of the case of Li Mingzhi is even more dramatic. CHAN Chung-ching, the founder and major shareholder of Canning, was arrested in 1983 in connection with a commercial crime, and the proceedings lasted for 13 years, making it the longest trial ever in Hong Kong. The Channing case cost $200 million of public money, and the ICAC investigators interviewed 350 witnesses in 13 countries in Europe, the United States, Australia and Asia, with 160 witnesses appearing in court, and 4 million pages of documents were included in the 20 000 pieces of evidence presented in court. During the trial, one witness was shot dead and an ICAC investigator in charge of the Jianing case was suspected to have committed suicide. In 1987, the presiding judge, Mr. Pekka, acquitted six defendants, including Mr. Chan Chung-ching, on the grounds that the charges were duplicated, which was criticized by the public. He resigned the following year, but was killed in a bizarre car accident in Cyprus, adding to the drama of the case. After the prosecution appealed, Chen Songqing was sentenced to three years in prison in 1996, or 18 months after deducting vacation time. After his release in 1998, he has rarely been seen again.
Beginning and ending of the Lee Ming-chi caseIn 1986, Lee Ming-chi closed down his business in Australia and moved to Hong Kong.In 1987, Lee Ming-chi and two of his directors bought more than 35% of Siu On Properties but failed to disclose that the three of them were acting in concert, avoiding a general offer, and were condemned by the SFC for violating the Takeovers and Mergers Code.In November '91, the United Group proposed to be privatized. In February 1992, the SFC received a complaint from a minority shareholder, Mr. Chim Pui-chung, alleging that Mr. Lee Ming-chi had failed to disclose his status as a major shareholder of Wai Yick. The SFC also intervened to investigate whether the purchase of Redhill Peninsula by United Properties was a connected transaction. August 92 Former Financial Secretary Hamish MacLehose appointed Nip Ah Lun, a partner of Yung Wing Tao CPA firm, to investigate ten companies in the United Group. September 92 The Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) dispatched 300 police officers in a high profile raid on the United Group's companies. March 93 Lee applied for a judicial review of the CCB's investigation, which was rejected by the High Court. In September 1993, the government announced the results of the investigation, alleging that some of the directors of Unimicron had engaged in improper acts and acts detrimental to the interests of minority shareholders, and referred the case to the Commercial Crime Bureau for follow up. In October 1993, George Lee resigned from all his positions in Unimicron, and in May 1997, Unimicron's chief financial officer, Tse Chew Fai, was arrested in Sydney, Australia, and its former director, Chan Shun On, was wanted by the police. In June 1999, the case was referred to the High Court for a permanent stay of hearing and in July 2000, the High Court ordered a permanent stay of the case and released Lee and Tse. In February 2001, the government retained the services of former Attorney General, Mr. Michael Tang, to appeal to the Court of Final Appeal (CFA), which remanded the case back to the High Court for a retrial in March 2001. In March 2002, the judge discharged the jury after the prosecution's expert witness, Lee Kwok Wing, former Managing Director of CITIC, was challenged for failing to disclose that he had been investigated by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC). In December 2002, the judge again ordered a permanent stay of the hearing after alleging that the prosecution was biased in favor of Lee Kwok Wing, thereby affecting the fairness of the trial. In May 2004, George Lee's application for a permanent stay of hearing was rejected by the High Court. In November 2004, George Lee entered into a plea agreement with the prosecution and pleaded guilty to two counts of issuing a false statement of accounts and was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, disqualified from acting as a director of the company for four years, and to pay a court fee of $15 million.