Middleman in Rafael Hui graft case gets early release from Hong Kong’s Stanley Prison

Ex-stock exchange executive Francis Kwan, convicted of handling more than HK$11 million in bribes to city’s former No 2 official, has sentence reduced for good behaviour

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Former Hong Kong stock exchange official Francis Kwan did not take questions from reporters as he left Stanley Prison. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 11:00am, 19 Apr 2018Updated: 10:48pm, 19 Apr 2018

A former senior Hong Kong stock exchange executive was released early from a maximum security prison on Thursday morning, becoming the first of four men to be freed following their convictions in a corruption scandal that took down the city’s former No 2 official Rafael Hui Si-yan.

At about 8.45am, Francis Kwan Hung-sang was sent to the gates of Stanley Prison in a golf cart and escorted out by two officials from the Correctional Services Department.

Carrying a plastic bag and wearing a smile, Kwan appeared thinner and with more grey hair than before he was jailed. The former official was not in his usual rectangular glasses and suit. Instead, he wore a light blue striped shirt with no tie, dark trousers and a black blazer.

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Kwan waved goodbye to prison officials and got into a waiting taxi without taking questions from reporters.

(Front, from left) Former Hong Kong stock exchange official Francis Kwan, Sun Hung Kai Properties executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen and (back, close to window, from left) former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan and Sun Hung Kai Properties co-chairman Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong, in December 2014. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

His release came 20 months earlier than expected because his sentence had been reduced by a third due to good behaviour, a source told the Post last week.

Kwan had wept in court when he was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2014 for handling HK$11.18 million (US$1.5 million) in bribes to former chief secretary Hui.