http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/20/world/asia/rafael-hui-thomas-kwok-guilty-hong-kong.html 2014-12-19 12:45:13 2 Convicted in Major Hong Kong Corruption Trial A man who was once the city’s second-highest official and a billionaire property tycoon charged with bribing him were both found guilty. === HONG KONG — The biggest corruption trial in A jury found the former official, Rafael Hui, 66, guilty of five charges, including misconduct in public office. One of two brothers accused of bribing him, Thomas Kwok, the co-chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, was found guilty in a conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. The monthslong trial suggested in vivid detail the cozy relationship between the city’s business elite and career officials who rose through the ranks of the British colonial government. Mr. Hui said he longed to maintain a lavish lifestyle — complete with a luxury apartment, a Sun Hung Kai Properties, one of the world’s biggest companies of its kind, was said to be happy to oblige as it sought his favors, showering Mr. Hui with millions of dollars in payments, which prosecutors claimed was an effort to make him their “eyes and ears” in the government. Mr. Kwok’s brother, Raymond Kwok, who is also a co-chairman of the company, was found not guilty on all counts, according to a The trial took an Mr. Hui, besides holding his post in the government of Hong Kong, was at the time a member of the elite standing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to China’s legislature. The revelation of payments from the mainland came at a delicate time, days before thousands of people took to the streets in Hong Kong protesting a move by Beijing, which resumed sovereignty over the city in 1997, to impose restrictive guidelines on how Hong Kong could conduct elections. Mr. Hui began his career in government in 1970. It included a stint on Hong Kong’s anticorruption commission before he enrolled at Harvard to earn a master’s degree in public administration. He then rose to become secretary for financial services in the last colonial administration and served as chief secretary, the city’s No. 2 public official, from 2005 to 2007. Prosecutors said his relationship with Sun Hung Kai Properties began in 2000, when he took a loan from one of its subsidiaries after leaving government. He received millions of dollars in consulting fees and lived in a luxury apartment in one of the company’s developments. He was found guilty of taking $1.1 million in bribes from Thomas Kwok as he was preparing to take the chief secretary post in 2005, The South China Morning Post reported. Two intermediaries who helped funnel the money were also found guilty on Friday. Mr. Hui and the Kwok brothers were arrested in March 2012. A spokeswoman for Sun Hung Kai Properties was not immediately able to provide a comment on the verdict.