2006-01-18 12:29 Police this (January 18) morning charged four men and a woman jointly with one count of conspiracy to defraud in connection with a case of false accounting involving an ex-listed company. Following investigations into a complaint referred to the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) in June 2003, officers of the CCB mounted an arrest operation in May 2005. Subsequent investigations revealed that among the arrestees, a 53-year-old man and a 51-year-old man were the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the subject company. The duo, in January 2001, through a series of bank transactions involving the accounts of eight shell companies, the subject company and the personal account of the 53-year old man, fraudulently generated a loan from the duo to the subject company in the sum of HK$100 million. Another 47-year-old man was the director of the subject company at the material time while the remaining 40-year-old man and the 44-year-old woman were allegedly involved in the fund circulations. Subsequent to the fabrication of the accounting records of the subject company, the 53-year-old man and the 51-year-old man were benefited by dishonestly receiving the repayment of the said loans purportedly financed to the subject company, by cash at HK$55 million and the issuance of ordinary shared of the subject company at HK$45 million. The five persons were charged jointly with one count of conspiracy to defraud and will appear in Eastern Magistrates' Courts this afternoon. |