Patrick Ho challenges six of eight charges against him in US$2.9 million corruption scandal
Lawyers for the former Hong Kong minister argue that HSBC, not Ho, routed money through New York bank when he sent US$900,000 to African officials’ accounts in Dubai and Uganda
His trial had been tentatively set for November this year, after Ho pleaded not guilty in a federal court on January 9 to accusations that he offered US$2.9 million (HK$22.8 million) worth of bribes to government officials in Africa in return for oil rights in Uganda and Chad for an unnamed Shanghai-based energy firm he represented.
On Monday, Ho’s lawyers applied to the New York Southern District Court for the six charges to be dropped, and revealed for the first time that the 68-year-old had used the largest bank in Hong Kong, HSBC, to send US$900,000 to accounts designated by Ugandan foreign minister Sam Kutesa and former Senegalese foreign minister Cheikh Gadio in 2015 and 2016.
Hearing postponed for former Hong Kong minister Patrick Ho indicted in US over US$2.9 million bribes
But Ho “had no control” over HSBC remitting the funds via a New York bank before the amounts reached accounts in Dubai and Uganda, the lawyers argued in a 27-page submission.
Ho, who was Hong Kong’s home affairs secretary from 2002 to 2007, “did not purposefully avail himself” of the services of an American correspondent bank, they added. And because he had no control over the money being sent via New York, his lawyers’ argument went, he should not be facing charges in a US court.
“The determination to send the wires through the United States was made by the originating bank, in this case HSBC Hong Kong,” the submission read.
“Temporarily passing ‘through’ a correspondent bank in the United States is not the same as coming ‘from’ or going ‘to’ the United States.