Five defendants went on trial in the District Court on November 11, 2026, over two counts of conspiracy to offer advantages to agents. The case concerns an alleged scheme linked to a major renovation at Hing Tat Mansion in Kwun Tong.
Prosecutors say three intermediaries sought to influence the building’s owners’ corporation chair and a committee member. The alleged plan was for companies linked to the defendants to secure property-management and engineering-consultancy contracts, paving the way for a related contractor to win the main renovation work, estimated at about HK$20 million.
The proposed benefits allegedly included giving the committee member and two other owners’ corporation members 10 per cent of the project amount. The chair was allegedly offered a refund of his share of inflated renovation costs in return for helping the linked companies obtain the contracts.
The committee member was allegedly asked to act as a “keyman”, coordinate with the owners’ corporation’s vice-chair and other committee members, and give favoured firms advance tips before interviews for the consultancy contract. Prosecutors said some bidders were directly arranged by two intermediaries, while others were indirectly linked to one of them; five rival firms were not to be allowed to win.
The prosecution said the people involved met ten times at a restaurant, where the Independent Commission Against Corruption secretly filmed them. At one meeting, a defendant reportedly estimated the contract at about HK$20 million.
The case was one of five prosecutions arising from the ICAC’s 2023 “Fire Net” operation. The operation involved projects at ten residential or commercial buildings, with combined contract values of about HK$520 million; 23 people were charged across the five cases.