Hong Kong authorities accuse Christian charity of harbouring leaders wanted for fraud
- Authorities make sharp U-turn after narcotics division officers meet Christian Zheng Sheng Association board members, accuse them of lying
Hong Kong authorities have again hit out at a scandal-ridden Christian charity operating a boarding school, accusing it of harbouring two former leaders wanted for fraud, after discovering the pair still serve as directors of related companies.
Lam was the founder of the charity, while Chan was the principal of its subsidiary boarding school, the Christian Zheng Sheng College, which was established to help teenagers struggling with drug addiction or who were on probation orders.
After the association’s new board disavowed the fugitives in its previous statement last week, the government said it would consider unfreezing the charity’s bank account if it used its funds solely to resuscitate school operations, which are set to cease next month due to financial problems.
But authorities made a sharp U-turn on Tuesday after officers from the narcotics division met board members and accused them of lying.
“We found their words and actions don’t accord with the facts and there is a reason to believe that their previous claims of cutting ties with the fugitives were not credible,” the government said.
“The board has failed to fulfil its duties and tolerated wrongdoings.”
It added: “The government strongly condemns their misconduct and has completely lost confidence in them.”
According to the Security Bureau, the new board of the charity, chaired by Reverend Lau Man-wo, agreed in its first meeting in mid-April not to pursue the stolen funds transferred overseas by Lam and Chan, despite the financial crisis the school was facing.
The government subsequently urged the board to recover the money, but the charity’s directors again rejected this course of action at a meeting held in the past week.
“This showed that the board had no intention to help teachers and students of the college,” the government said, adding that the association was now under “suspicion of harbouring the fugitives”.
It noted Lam and Chan were still on the board of the school and the charity fund – both subsidiaries of the association – and that the pair were still in control of the organisation’s bank accounts.
The government said the board had “no sense of responsibility” in running the college or resolving the crisis that it was facing.
It added that relevant departments would provide appropriate support to students of the college as law enforcement agencies followed up with the case.
In a reply to the Post, Reverend Siu Yu-fat, vice-chairman of the charity’s new board, rejected accusations that the organisation was harbouring the fugitives: “We are pastors, why would we do that?”
“There were seven directors on the board, four of whom are still in Hong Kong. Why didn’t the government follow up with them instead, if they have committed a crime?”
In contrast to the board’s previous statement that it had cut ties with Lam and Chan, Siu said he found it “contradictory” that the authorities should ask the charity to reject its former directors while also pursuing the funds they had transferred overseas.
“We will act in the best interest of the association and follow up with the matter,” said Siu. “The most important task at the moment is to unfreeze the bank accounts.”
Asked whether the board had passed a resolution not to pursue the funds transferred overseas in April, Siu said the new directors had only recently assumed office and “had yet to get a handle on a lot of things”.
He added that Lam and Chan were still on the board of the subsidiaries and controlled their bank accounts because they had yet to hand over the necessary company and financial documents.
The new board “still do not have the company stamps and chequebooks”, he said.
