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April 20, 2016

Prominent Hong Kong politicians and businessmen named in new round of Panama Papers leaks

Former contender for chief executive Henry Tang, Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing and two cabinet members among those listed as owning offshore companies

STUART.LAU@SCMP.COM

UPDATED : Wednesday, 20 April, 2016, 1:10pm

Several prominent Hongkongers opened offshore firms with Mossack Fonseca, according to a new Panama Papers leak. Photos: Jonathan Wong, EPA

A number of Hong Kong politicians and businessmen – including a former contender for the chief executive post, the development minister and the richest man in town, Li Ka-shing – were named as owners of offshore companies in the latest round of Panama Papers leaks.

Two cabinet members in the Leung Chun-ying administration – Secretary for Development Paul Chan Mo-po and Executive Council member Bernard Chan – were among those named.

Li, chairman of CK Hutchison Holdings and Cheung Kong Property, was found to have opened a Panama firm with Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm from which 11 million documents were leaked to a consortium of investigative journalists.

But the most damning finding appears to involve Henry Tang Ying-yen, Hong Kong’s former chief secretary, who failed in his bid for the top job in 2012.

It was shown that three days before he was appointed commerce minister in 2002, Tang transferred his shares in Fair Alliance, a firm that ran private jet businesses, to his father in the name of a trust, to which he was the beneficiary.

Tang said he had declared the trust under Exco rules. When asked why he put down “Fairs Alliance” on the official declaration form, he called it a mistake.

His business partner was revealed to be Christopher Cheng Wai-chee, who held an equal share of Fair Alliance with Tang. Cheng, chairman of Wing Tai Properties, was appointed as a non-executive director of the Securities and Futures Commission in 2003 and the head of a review committee on competition policies in 2005 when Tang was financial secretary.

The allegations prompted Tang to issue a statement even before local media published the reports. Tang said he had made the required disclosures “in strict accordance” with the declaration of interest mechanism of the Exco and of the government.

The family of Paul Chan, meanwhile, was confirmed to be the owner of two offshore firms. This first came to light when the media reported that he owned land interests in a redeveloped area. Further investigations found that those firms helped set up other offshore firms through Mossack Fonseca.

At least one lawmaker, New People’s Party’s Michael Tien Puk-sun, admitted he did not disclose to the Legislative Council his joint ownership with his wife of a British Virgin Islands company. Tien said the firm held only the membership of a Shenzhen golf club.

Another focus in the latest round of revelations is on nationality – a sensitive issue in a city where holders of key public offices are bound to explain a non-Chinese nationality.

Lau Ming-wai, son of property tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung and chairman of the Committee on Youth, was revealed to have said he was a British national on one of the leaked documents. In response, Lau said he had no plan to switch nationality – despite his having to engage the increasingly anti-mainland youth of Hong Kong.

The same nationality was given by Lau Wong-fat, kingpin of rural powerhouse Heung Yee Kuk, who held three offshore companies.

In Macau, Ng Lap-seng, the businessman charged by US authorities with bribing former United Nations leaders, was found to have owned a BVI firm that ran South-South News, which had been granted the right to be stationed in the UN headquarters despite its lack of journalistic track record.

In response to questions from news portal HK01 – which together with Ming Pao and Next Magazinereceived the Hong Kong-related documents from the consortium – a UN spokesman said the status of South-South News would be reviewed.

http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1937250/prominent-hong-kong-politicians-and-businessmen-named-new