Walter Kwok 'threatened' SHKP director over ICC lease, court told

An executive director of Sun Hung Kai Properties told a high-level corruption trial about his "disturbing" experience of being warned years ago by his boss, Walter Kwok Ping-sheung, over a lease agreement he had reached with a bank.

Kwok, then SHKP chairman, sent "threatening letters" to Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency executive director Victor Lui Ting because he disagreed with Lui's leasing of a large part of SHKP development International Commerce Centre to Credit Suisse, the High Court heard. Kwok was the only board member against the deal, saying he could find a better tenant at a higher rent.

Lui was testifying in the trial of former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan, who is accused of having taken tens of millions of dollars from SHKP co-chairmen Thomas Kwok Ping-kwong and Raymond Kwok Ping-luen to be the developer's "eyes and ears" in the government.

Lui revealed his friction with the Kwok defendants' elder brother, Walter Kwok, after a lawyer for Thomas Kwok asked if he knew the two siblings disagreed over SHKP's business in 2003.

Clare Montgomery QC said the pair had a dispute over rental arrangements at the IFC and ICC. Lui said he could not recall matters related to the IFC leasing. But he confirmed Walter Kwok had "attacked" him in front of his colleagues over the ICC deal. Prosecutors said at the start of the hearings that the incident was in 2007.

When asked about his impression of the disagreement, Lui said: "It was disturbing. I felt that his objection was irrational." The row was resolved soon after the Kwok brothers' mother, Kwong Siu-hing, intervened. Kwong, a board member, expressed willingness in a letter dated January 6, 2008, to accept the ICC deal, which the board approved on January 17, the court heard. Walter Kwok took leave from work the following month and was replaced by his mother as chairman on May 27 that year.