Stanley Ho Secured Ex-official's Help, Trial Told

A Macau businesswoman accused of bribing former senior government official Wilson Fung had written in her diary that “the assistance of a very senior former official at the economic development bureau has been enlisted”, the District Court was told on Thursday.

The statement was recorded in Cheyenne Chan’s diary in 2006.

Chan, the sister-in-law of casino tycoon Stanley Ho, is charged with paying Fung HK$510,000 in 2004 for him to be favourably disposed towards her and her three aviation companies.

Fung, meanwhile, faces charges of accepting an advantage and misconduct in public office.

At the time he was a deputy head of the then Economic Development and Labour Bureau, and was briefly transferred to the Home Affairs Bureau before he quit the government in late 2006.

Defending herself in the trial, Chan explained that what she wrote in her diary was in fact said by Ho.

She said Ho told her that the person enlisted knew “how to find the right people, and how to deal with the government”.

Chan said Ho sometimes would discuss business with her in person or over the phone, and she would jot down what he said in her diary in case she forgot.

The trial is continuing.