How a small team of graft-busters tightened the net in Hong Kong’s most explosive corruption case

A tip-off about a crooked flat deal between the government’s former No 2 and a top developer was the starting point of six years’ painstaking work that put them behind bars

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The ICAC’s director of investigation (government sector), Ricky Yu (centre), flanked by chief investigators Winnie Lee Wai-yee (left) and Hazel Law. Photo: David Wong

Published: 9:00am, 7 Aug 2017Updated: 11:17am, 7 Aug 2017

Over 120 witnesses, 230 bank accounts, local and overseas, and thousands of bank transactions spanning almost a decade: such was the task facing anti-graft officers during a six-year investigation that eventually put Hong Kong’s former No 2 official Rafael Hui Si-yan behind bars.

But what turned out to be the longest investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997 started out with a team of just three.

“This investigation, originating from a complaint, involved accusations against a former senior government official and high-ranking staff from a big land developer. So it entailed very sensitive materials,” chief investigator Hazel Law Pui-man said.

Tycoon Thomas Kwok (left) and former chief secretary Rafael Hui (right) on their way to a hearing at the High Court in March last year. Photo: Edward Wong

The watchdog had to keep the team small, another investigator, Ricky Yu Chun-cheong, recalled, so things could be kept under the radar to avoid alerting the suspects.

“If you want the ICAC to function properly, confidentiality is one of key requirements that has to be upheld,” the director of investigation (government sector) said.

Yu now wants the ICAC to be given more power to investigate such misconduct by top officials.