Hong Kong Won't Appeal Bribery Case Involving Ex-JPMorgan Banker -- Update
March 03 2021 - 7:36AM
Dow Jones News
(Adds comments from Hong Kong's Department of Justice)
By Joanne Chiu
The Hong Kong government won't appeal the acquittal of a former
banker at JPMorgan Chase & Co., who was found not guilty of
bribing a client by offering a job to his son.
The city's antigraft agency, the Independent Commission Against
Corruption, had charged former banker Catherine Leung Kar-cheung in
2019 with bribing the chairman of Kerry Logistics by offering to
employ his son at the bank.
However, on Feb. 1, a Hong Kong judge ruled that Ms. Leung, a
former vice chairwoman of JPMorgan's Asia-Pacific investment
banking business, wasn't guilty of two counts of bribery. The judge
said it wasn't certain if she intended to win a deal mandate via
the job offer or just to maintain and build a good relationship
with the potential client.
The prosecution followed scrutiny from the U.S. government over
JPMorgan's so-called Sons and Daughters program, which entailed
hiring relatives of clients and prospective clients to win
investment-banking business. The U.S. bank in 2016 admitted
violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay
$264 million to resolve U.S. civil and criminal charges.
In a reply to an inquiry, the Department of Justice said
Wednesday that it could only appeal on matters of law. After
considering the prosecutor's report on the reasons for acquittal,
the trial evidence, and the circumstances of the case, it said it
decided "no appeal is warranted in this case."
Joseph Tse, a senior counsel who represented Ms. Leung in the
case, declined to comment.
Write to Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 03, 2021 07:21 ET (12:21 GMT)
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