Former Hong Kong home affairs minister suspended from medical practitioners register over US conviction in multimillion-dollar bribery plot
- Ophthalmologist-turned-politician Patrick Ho, a registered doctor since 1980, has been barred from practising medicine for 12 months by the Medical Council of Hong Kong
- The suspension stems from his 2019 conviction in the US over a scheme in which he offered millions of dollars in bribes to African leaders
The decision followed a disciplinary hearing at the Medical Council of Hong Kong on Tuesday morning that was held without the presence of the 71-year-old ophthalmologist-turned-politician.
Ho was sentenced to 36 months in jail and fined US$400,000 (HK$3.1 million) in March of 2019, after a US federal court jury found him guilty on five counts of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and two of money laundering.
He returned to Hong Kong last June upon finishing his sentence in the US.
“Taking into consideration everything in the round, including but not limited to the nature and gravity of the criminal convictions, we order … the name of the defendant be removed from the General Register for a period of 12 months,” said Professor Grace Tang Wai-king, who chaired the inquiry panel.
