Former minister Mak Chai-kwong denies he deceived
Mak Chai-kwong told ICAC investigators that his wife's name was on lease for simplicity and he had no intention of covering up interests
Former development minister Mak Chai-kwong denied allegations that he had made a premeditated arrangement with assistant highways director Tsang King-man to cross-lease their flats in which they had a financial interest, a court heard yesterday.
Mak, who is being tried over housing fraud, also denied telling lies in a joint statement he drafted with Tsang after the media exposed the event in July last year.
The prosecution played Mak's recorded interviews, made under caution, with the Independent Commission Against Corruption, on the sixth day of the trial in District Court.
Tsang, 57, and Mak, 62, are accused of defrauding the government of HK$700,000 in housing allowances by using two properties in which they had a financial interest. Mak also faces two counts, and Tsang three counts, of using documents with intent to deceive the government. They have denied the charges.
In the interview Mak said he met Tsang by chance in the queue to buy the flats at City Garden in North Point in 1985. "I had no intention … to deceive for money," he said.
The same year, Mak bought unit 21E and Tsang bought the flat one floor above, 22E.
The prosecution alleged that they entered into a fraudulent arrangement to purchase the two flats and leased them to each other in the names of their wives, thereby concealing their financial interests in the flats.
