A former senior banker at
& Co. was acquitted of bribing a possible consumer by hiring his son, in a defeat for Hong Kong’s antigraft company.
Deputy District Decide
Emily Cheung
on Monday dominated that
Catherine Leung Kar-cheung,
a former vice chairwoman of
JPMorgan’s
Asia-Pacific funding banking enterprise, wasn’t responsible of two counts of bribery.
Ms. Leung had been charged in May 2019 with bribing a businessman to win a mandate for an preliminary public providing, in a case introduced by the town’s Unbiased Fee Towards Corruption.
Her prosecution got here after JPMorgan confronted U.S. scrutiny for its so-called Sons and Daughters program, by which bankers in Asia supplied internships and jobs to family members of shoppers and potential shoppers to win investment-banking enterprise between 2006 and 2013. In 2016, JPMorgan admitted it had violated the Overseas Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay $264 million to resolve U.S. civil and prison expenses.
The ICAC’s case hinged on emails despatched by Ms. Leung to colleagues, together with one concerning the IPO which mentioned: “We’re a powerful contender. Blink Blink nod nod, can we discover a place for his son…” One other e-mail that mentioned whereas the younger man “doesn’t interview nicely,” he was more likely to get a job supply from someplace given an IPO mandate was up for grabs.
Nonetheless, Decide Cheung mentioned it wasn’t sure if Ms. Leung meant to win an IPO mandate through a job supply to
Ang Ren-yi,
the son of Kerry Logistics’s then-chairman
Ang Keng-lam,
or whether or not she simply wished to take care of and construct an excellent relationship with the
and its firms, together with Kerry Logistics.
The choose mentioned Ms. Leung didn’t make the ultimate hiring determination. As well as, she mentioned Ms. Leung’s discussions of the potential IPO in e-mail exchanges might simply be a solution to brag about her efficiency on the financial institution.
Ms. Leung had no remark after the court docket determination on Monday. She had pleaded not guilty in 2019. JPMorgan declined to remark.
The antigraft watchdog mentioned it respects the court docket ruling and can research the explanations for the decision, with out saying whether or not it plans to attraction. It mentioned it is going to proceed to struggle corruption in finance.
In 2009, Kerry Logistics was contemplating an IPO and held discussions with JPMorgan and different banks about its plans. It will definitely went public in 2013 and didn’t choose JPMorgan to deal with the itemizing.
Write to Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com
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Appeared within the February 2, 2021, print version as ‘Former JPMorgan Banker Acquitted in Bribery Case.’
