Hong Kong court acquits Roy Cho and associates in Convoy’s fraud case, dealing blow to regulator’s crackdown on white collar crime

Roy Cho Kwai-chee, a former director of one of Hong Kong’s largest Mandatory Pension Fund advisers, was acquitted of a charge to defraud HK$89 million from Convoy Global Holdings

Two of Cho’s associates, former chief financial officer Christie Chan Lai-yee, and former executive director Byron Tan Ye-kai were also acquitted

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Former Convoy director Roy Cho Kwai-chee walking free at the District Court in Wan Chai on 30 November 2020. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 10:49am, 30 Nov 2020Updated: 10:55pm, 30 Nov 2020

Three executives were acquitted of charges of defrauding Convoy Global Holdings in Hong Kong, dealing a blow to the financial regulator’s attempt to instil financial discipline and crack down on white-collar malfeasance in the world’s fourth-largest capital market.

District Court Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung cleared former Convoy director Roy Cho Kwai-chee of one charge of publishing false statements in the company’s 2016 annual report on March 29, 2017.

Two of Cho’s associates, former chief financial officer Christie Chan Lai-yee, 48, and former executive director Byron Tan Ye-kai, 52, were also found not guilty of charges. The three were charged with attempting to defraud HK$89 million from Convoy to buy a company linked to Cho.

Convoy, one of the largest advisers of Hong Kong’s Mandatory Pension Fund (MPF) is a crucial piece in the so-called Enigma Network of companies, a cluster of interrelated companies with layers of overlapping shareholdings that have resisted regulatory crackdowns. Hong Kong’s financial regulator has mounted a multi-year campaign to bring the network down on suspicions of fraud, market manipulation and corporate malfeasance.

Convoy is one of the largest independent financial advisers in Hong Kong, with more than 100,000 customers. Trading in Convoy‘s shares has been halted since December 2017, and its management has changed after the investigation by the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) went public.