Eighteen months’ jail for operations director of newspaper’s advertising department for soliciting bribes from subordinates

A former director of operations of the advertising department of a newspaper company, charged by the ICAC, was today (July 3) sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment at the District Court for soliciting bribes from four subordinates and accepting about $88,000 in total from two of them after their receipt of commissions from the company, while the two subordinates were handed suspended sentences.

Daniel Wu Hang-chi, also known as Wu Che-hang, 44, former director of operations of the advertising department of Hong Kong Commercial Daily (HKCD), was earlier convicted of eight charges after trial – three of conspiracy for an agent to solicit an advantage and five of agent accepting an advantage, contrary to section 9(1)(a) of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (POBO) and section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance. He was today sentenced to 18 month’s imprisonment and ordered to pay HKCD restitution of about $88,000, equivalent to the amount of bribes he received in the present case.

Two subordinates of Wu, Lee Kwok-wai, 51, and Ngo Kam-fai, 45, respectively former and serving business representatives of the advertising department of HKCD, earlier pleaded guilty to six charges – five of offering an advantage to an agent and one of conspiracy for an agent to solicit an advantage, contrary to sections 9(1)(a) and 9(2)(a) of the POBO and section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance. Lee was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, while Ng was jailed for two months, suspended for one year.

In sentencing, Judge Mr Clement Lee Hing-nin reprimanded Wu for abusing his position to exploit his subordinates by soliciting bribes from them over a span of two years, which had undermined the reputation of his employer and the morale of his subordinates. His corrupt practice would have persisted if it had not been reported.

The judge took a starting point of 21 months’ imprisonment and reduced Wu’s jail term by three months, having considered his mitigating factors. Suspended sentences were imposed on the two co-defendants after considering various mitigating factors, including their guilty pleas and assistance rendered to the prosecution, which had led to the conviction of their supervisor for corruption.

Between September 2019 and February 2022, Wu was the director of operations of HKCD’s advertising department. He was responsible for overseeing the operations of the department, supervising business representatives, including Lee and Ngo, and assisting his subordinates to secure event sponsorships. Business representatives were entitled to 10 per cent of the sponsorships they secured for HKCD’s events as commissions, and they were required to submit to HKCD relevant documents via Wu for the calculation and release of the commissions.

Wu would receive bonuses after each event or at the end of each year, subject to the profits made, but he was not entitled to share the commissions of his subordinates. Meanwhile, HKCD did not allow its staff to solicit or accept any advantage in relation to its business.

The court heard that at the material time, Lee, Ngo and two other business representatives, who were responsible for sourcing sponsorships for four events organised by HKCD, had secured various sponsorships totalling about $3.8 million. They subsequently received commissions totalling about $380,000 released by HKCD.

The ICAC investigation arose from a corruption complaint. Enquiries revealed that Wu accompanied Lee, Ngo and the two other business representatives to meet various sponsors on his own accord and solicited bribes from them for his assistance in securing those event sponsorships. The bribes solicited by Wu ranged from 30 to 50 per cent of the commissions payable to each of the four subordinates in relation to the events.

Upon Wu’s request, Lee offered four bribes totalling about $83,000, and Ngo a bribe of $5,000, to Wu. The two other business representatives turned down Wu’s solicitation.

HKCD rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.

The prosecution was today represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Douglas Lau, assisted by ICAC officer Ricky Tsui.