Jailed ex-Hong Kong lawmaker released on HK$5 million bail pending appeal against fraud conviction

A former Hong Kong lawmaker serving an almost three-year jail term for a fraud conviction has been released on HK$5 million bail pending appeal.

Former Hong Kong lawmaker Chim Pui-chung. File photo: Wikicommons.

Chim Pui-chung, 79, appeared at the High Court’s Court of Appeal on Wednesday for a second application for bail pending his appeal in a HK$210 million fraud case, which occurred between 2013 and 2015, according to local media reports.

Chim and his son, Ricky, were convicted in December 2024 of conspiring to defraud a listed company and the stock exchange. The pair were accused of hiding a “backdoor listing” deal from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) and the board of directors of Asia Resources, a listed company of which the elder Chim was the largest shareholder and Ricky was the chair.

The elder Chim was jailed for two years and 10 months last February, while Ricky was handed a sentence of three years and one month.

Both of them are appealing their convictions and sentences.

High Court Judge Keith Yeung on Wednesday granted Chim Pui-chung the HK$5 million bail, on the condition that he resides at his Repulse Bay home and reports to police twice a week.

The ex-lawmaker also had to surrender his passport and is prohibited from contacting prosecution witnesses.

His son did not apply for bail on Wednesday.

This is not Chim’s first conviction. After becoming a lawmaker in 1991, he was convicted and jailed in 1998 for conspiring to forge documents. He later returned to the Legislative Council, representing the financial services sector between 2004 and 2012.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP.

The fraud case stemmed from a “shell acquisition” agreement involving the pair and fugitive businessman Ma Zhonghong.

Ma allegedly negotiated with the father and son duo that he would pay HK$210 million in exchange for control of 70 to 75 per cent of the Asia Resources Holdings stocks between July 2013 and November 2015.

Trial judge Ernest Lin said in his judgment that, while shell acquisitions are common in the financial market and not illegal, the pair hid the deal from Asia Resources’s board and the HKEX.

A third defendant, Wong Poe-lai, was jailed for two years over one count of money laundering after the judge found her guilty of handling HK$42 million in criminal proceeds.

The former lawmaker and his son were charged in November 2021 by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Hong Kong’s anti-graft watchdog, following a complaint referred by the Securities and Futures Commission.