Former H.K. exchange head, aides arrested

Press, 4 January 1988, Page 8

Former H.K. exchange head, aides arrested

By

WILLIAM KAZER

NZPA-Reuter Hong Kong The former chairman of Hong Kong’s Stock Exchange and two top aides were arrested on Saturday by members of the British colony’s antigraft agency and later released on bail. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) arrested former stock exchange chief Ronald Li, aged 58, and aides Jeffrey Sun and Donald Tsang in connection with a probe of suspected corruption. An ICAC spokesman on Saturday night said the three were released on bail pending further inquiries. Li’s bail was set at $1151,300,000 ($NZ1,976,000), Sun’s at $U5520,000 ($NZ790,000) and Tsang’s at SUS4OOO (SNZ6OBO). The independent agency, empowered to investigate and bring

charges against public corruption, did not elaborate on the move, saying only that it began a probe before the October market slide. No charges have been filed. The agency has 48 hours to question suspects before deciding whether to press charges. “I was told this morning,” said senior stock exchange official Robert Fell, describing his reaction as “one of surprise, one of considerable shock.” Li, the stock exchange’s best known and most controversial figure, stepped aside as chairman last month after the maximum two terms at the helm. Now a vice-chairman, he piloted the merger of four rival bourses into a single unified market in 1986. But he also came under criticism for his

role in closing the exchange for four days in October as world share prices plunged, a move that many brokers said worsened the nearshattering slide in share prices once trading resumed. The Hang Seng index, the colony’s main stock indicator, fell 33 per cent on the reopening of trading on October 26, prompting calls for market reform and widespread complaints about Li’s management. Li has also come under fire for his bid to list on the exchange the shares of an upmarket girlie bar in which he is an investor. Sun resigned as chief executive of the exchange last November, saying he planned to emigrate to Canada. Tsang heads the exchange’s listing department, though he has been temporarily removed from

his duties. The arrests prompted top-level meetings of Government officials who called on unidentified members of the stock exchange’s 21member governing committee to “distance themselves” from the running of the exchange. Stock officials later said that a new 14-mem-ber management committee was formed to run the exchange temporarily, but it did not include Charles Sin, the exchange’s newly-elected chairman. Asked to comment on the decision to exclude Sin, Fell said: “It implies nothing.” Fell said the market would open for business as usual today and he believed that sentiment should not be affected. “I see no reason why the Hang Seng index should move one way or the other,” he said. “I believe money moves for economic reasons.”