Former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho appeals against US conviction in multimillion-dollar bribery case

Ex-home affairs chief wants to serve another six months at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre to prepare for appeal, before moving to another prison

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Patrick Ho could be released as early as June 2020, with good behaviour, having been held in a New York jail for 16 months. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Published: 9:52pm, 28 Mar 2019Updated: 1:09am, 29 Mar 2019

Disgraced former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho Chi-ping has appealed against his conviction in the US over a multimillion-dollar bribery case.

Ho’s legal team also applied for Ho to spend another six months in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre (MCC), where he has been since his initial arrest, to prepare for the appeal, before going to a minimum-security out-of-town prison.

The 69-year-old former home affairs minister given a three-year sentence and fined US$400,000 (HK$3.1 million) on Monday, after a US federal jury found him guilty on five counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and two counts of money laundering.

The charges related to his offer of US$2.9 million in bribes to senior leaders in Chad and Uganda to secure oil rights for a Chinese company.

Ho has been held at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre since his arrest. Photo: AP

But Ho could be released as early as June next year, having already been held at the MCC for 16 months, and with the possibility of another five months deducted from his jail term for good behaviour, according to his lawyers.