Ronny Tong Slams Govt Over Extradition Concessions

Executive Council member Ronny Tong says he's disappointed to see the government has bowed down to pressure from the commercial sector by dropping nine types of white-collar crimes from planned legislation to enable one-off extradition deals.

Tong told RTHK that while he understands the administration is eager to get the proposal legal changes passed by Legco and is desperate to get the backing of business leaders, the exclusion of these corporate offences may make Hong Kong a haven for financial crime fugitives.

"I'm concerned that being a financial centre, we may be encouraging white-collar criminals to come to Hong Kong as a port shelter. If you look at the exempted crimes here, you are talking about listing crimes and securities crimes which could involve fraud and deception and which could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars," Tong said on Wednesday.

"The exemption of import duty is also a concern and in the long-run it's not going to be in the interests of Hong Kong as a commercial and financial centre."

Tong, who's also a barrister, said the government should re-include these offences in the legislation as soon as possible.

"I certainly hope that the government in due course could perfect the present system by ensuring that all serious crimes are included," he said. "It is a necessity to try to plug the loopholes in our law as soon as possible."

Business groups and some pro-government lawmakers had called for various economic crimes to be exempt from the planned legal amendments to the Fugitives Offenders Ordinance over fears executives could be handed over to the mainland for offences they had "unwittingly" committed.