Ups and downs of the Emperor

MICHAEL WONG

Sunday, May 28, 1995

The life and times of Emperor Group chairman Albert Yeung Sau-shing is full of ups and downs, writes Michael Wong

A LBERT Yeung, the multimillionaire businessman who was acquitted of criminal intimidation and false imprisonment in last week’s “amnesia” case, is no stranger to controversy.

Yeung, 51, head of the Emperor Group, was arrested in December 1994 by the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau (OCTB).

He was charged with allegedly keeping former employee Lam Yih-jiun against his will at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the evening of 9 December and in the group’s Alexander House office in Central later that night.

But the case took a dramatic turn at Western Magistrates Court last week.

Five witnesses, including Mr Lam, refused to give evidence and said they could not recall what had happened.

Magistrate Paul Kelly acquitted Yeung but said he “cannot, with the same assurance, declare justice has been done”.

Justice

The acquittal adds another chapter to a life of ups and downs for Yeung.

The father of three started making a name for himself in the 1960s and 1970s in a watch business which was started in 1942 by his family, originally from Chiu Chow, China.

In 1962, Yeung’s company, Emperor Watch and Jewellery Company (now Emperor International Holdings), started to invest in property and real estate.

In 1978, Emperor bought a Singapore company trading in foreign exchange and bullion and entered the Hong Kong market the next year.

The trading service expanded into commercial and residential property.

Yeung’s life entered a new stage as the 1980s began when he remarried, years after the end of his first marriage.

He was also involved in a court case in which he was sent to prison. It left him fighting to save his crumbling business after his release.

In 1979, Yeung was arrested by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

He was charged with inciting Wai Kin-bong, general manager of the newspaper Tin Tin Daily News, not to testify against jockey Tony Cruz and his brother.

The Cruz brothers were charged with assaulting Mr Wai. Both were convicted and each received a sentence of six months suspended for one year.

In 1980, Yeung was given a two-month prison term, also suspended for one year.

In April 1981, Yeung appealed but failed. In the summer of 1981, a Court of Appeal judge ruled in favour of the Attorney-General, who said the sentence was too lenient.

Yeung was then immediately sentenced to nine months in prison.

When he returned to his business in 1982, Yeung found his investments out of control.

His company owed in excess of $320 million.

To save himself from bankruptcy, Yeung had to sign an agreement with the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp (HSBC) to become an employee there at a salary of $20,000 a month, while HSBC took over his business.

Within three years, he had paid all the money back and once again gained control of his business, although his criminal conviction restricted which positions he was able to hold.

In 1986 Yeung was charged with bookmaking, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Police alleged Yeung and two others had been operating a bookmaking syndicate at a Broadcast Drive apartment with multiline telephone equipment, calculators and a television.

Yeung was found guilty of the charge and fined $50,000.

In 1990, the Emperor Group bought stocks from another group, Parisco International (Holdings), in order to gain entrance to the stock market again.

Because of his criminal record, Yeung was not allowed to chair the group’s subsidiary company.

Changed

The move succeeded and gave the group a listing on the Stock Exchange in 1990.

The group’s name later changed to Emperor Investments.

Emperor International Holdings now controls Emperor (China Concept) Investments, Hong Kong Daily News Holdings and Righteous (Holdings).

Yeung’s brother and sister have been among those chairing the three companies that are listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Yeung has continued to be the chairman of the group.

Yeung was also the victim of a well-publicised kidnap attempt.

In April 1989, three armed men tried to kidnap Yeung from outside his office in Central.

His driver “Ah Sing” alerted two patrolling police officers by running the vehicle up on the pavement.

Yeung was unhurt and police later caught the kidnappers, who served jail terms.

The famous tycoon is a good friend of some of the most respected and well-known people in Hong Kong.

Among them are film star Jackie Chan, with whom the Emperor Group has teamed up along with other actors and singers to build an entertainment complex in Shanghai.

The late tycoon Sir Tang Shiu-kin was also a good friend of Yeung’s and last year Yeung paid $13 million at an auction to buy Sir Shiu-kin’s number “9″ licence plate.

Yeung’s daughter is married to director-actor Alfred Cheung Kin-ting.

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http://www.news.gov.hk/en/categories/law_order/html/2013/01/20130115_195419.shtml

I take you for your word re 90% of money changers having closed down post AMLO. Assuming they existed and they they operated in shady upstairs rooms I have never once dealt with them – in fact I never even knew where one such existed (Scouts’ Honor !)

In what I wrote I’m was talking about money changers who pre- AMLO always operated openly in major streets on ground floor level, advertising the current RMB / HK$ rates and in full view of the Police walking around 24/7 ; and now post- AMLO they still operate in exactly the same premises and in the same way. So I assume they are all licensed : were so then and are so now.

( Please note that I wrote that I DID have to give my ID and mobile number, but NOT my address, NOR the source of my funds ……. it was in fact money I had just withdrawn from HSBC)

The current exchange rate is 800/ 804 last time I checked.

Pre-AMLO, there were about 11,000 money changers on the Police Register. The AMLO regulator, the Customs & Excise Department, whittled that down 90%. The RMB exchange trade has mostly gone even further underground that pre-AMLO.

But they don’t even need to carry in RMB. All they need to do is to go to licensed HK money changer , get the number of the money -changer’s PRC bank account and deposit the RMB there . Then 30 minutes later they can pick up the HK$ at the pre- agreed exchange rate.
I once asked my bank manger if this was legal ( given that most reputable banks in HK only allow one to exchange a few thousand HK$ to RMB, or vice versa, per day ). He hummed, hah-ed and winked and finally said ” no comment, but if you trust the money-changer not to go bankrupt for the 30 minutes while your cash in limbo, it’s a lot faster and more efficient than using a bank and you get a better exchange rate.

Welcome to HK – money laundering capital of Asia ( except for Singapore and all the other places where laundering is unofficially legal … oops sorry “officially illegal” )

At least there’s some progress. I bought RMB16K the other day from a reputable money exchanger and had to show my ID card because there’s a new rule that for any exchange at a money changer over HK$8K one must now give an ID and phone number