A former Hong Kong Cyberport chairman who is wanted by Vietnamese authorities has not been reappointed as a member of the city leader’s think tank.
Lee George Lam was not on the list of appointments announced on Tuesday for the Chief Executive’s Policy Unit Expert Group, after serving a one-year term on the body that city leader John Lee Ka-chiu established in May 2023.
Vietnamese authorities earlier accused Lam of being involved in the country’s largest financial fraud. At the centre of the case is real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was sentenced to death for plundering more than US$12.5 billion from a bank using hundreds of ghost companies.
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The fraud also involved embezzlement, bribery and banking regulation violations, according to a Vietnamese court .
The country’s government issued an arrest warrant for Lam, a former board member of Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), in October last year over allegations of “abusing his authority to actively assist Truong My Lan in embezzling money from SCB”.
Lam previously told the Post that the allegations were unfounded and he would contact the country’s authorities to clear up the matter.
It was unclear whether the decision not to renew Lam’s appointment to the Hong Kong’s leader’s think tank was related to the accusations.
Lam was the chairman of Cyberport from 2016 to 2022 and deputy chairman of the city’s first satellite manufacturer, Uspace Technology Group.
According to the latest announcement from the city government, 54 members of the advisory body were reappointed. Five new members were added: Professor Ba Shusong, managing director of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing; Bonnie Chan Woo Tak-chi, CEO of Complex China; Jonathan Zhu Jia, partner and co-head of Asia private equity at Bain Capital; lawmaker Tang Fei; and Naubahar Sharif, a professor of public policy at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Eva Cheng Li Kam-fun, former president of local think tank Our Hong Kong Foundation, also did not have her term renewed.
All representatives have been appointed for one-year terms that begin on Thursday.
The group, headed by Stephen Wong Yuen-shan, was set up to advise the chief executive on boosting the city’s socio-economic standing in line with national development.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Member of Hong Kong leader’s policy unit denies involvement in Vietnam’s biggest fraud case
- Ex-professor wanted by Hong Kong anti-corruption agency over alleged HK$4 million fraud scheme detained in Poland
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