Hong Kong billionaire released from jail and heads home for dim sum

(FILES) In this file photo taken on May 8, 2014, Thomas Kwok, one of the chairmen of development giant Sun Hung Kai Properties arrives at the high court in Hong Kong. Hong Kong property tycoon Thomas Kwok and ex-deputy leader Rafael Hui were back in court on November 2, 2015 to appeal corruption convictions that saw them jailed last year after a blockbuster trial. AFP PHOTO / FILES / Philippe Lopez

HONG KONG: What’s the first thing a Hong Kong billionaire does when he’s released from jail? Order dim sum, of course.

“The thing I want to do the most? Go home,” 67-year-old Thomas Kwok said outside Stanley Prison after serving just over three years of his five-year sentence. He was granted an early release for good behavior. 

“I have already ordered dim sum.”

The former co-chairman of Hong Kong’s largest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., Kwok was found guilty in 2014 of conspiring to bribe the city’s former No. 2 official Rafael Hui in exchange for favorable treatment for the company.

Kwok has a net worth of $12.4 billion, making him Hong Kong’s fifth-richest person alongside his younger brother Raymond Kwok, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.

He told reporters he has no immediate plan to return to work and will take time to rest. “There were a lot of changes in the company in the four years that I was absent,” he said outside the prison, where he was met by his brother, son Adam and daughter Noelle.

“I need to catch up with the changes in the world and Hong Kong. I would like to visit other countries to study how to incorporate technology into the business,” he said. - Bloomberg