The chief manager of a listed company and a director of another company have been jailed for up to seven years for soliciting and accepting bribes. Wharf (Holdings) Chief Manager Warren Wong, 48, was jailed seven years, and W.K. Limited director Edwin Tso, 41, received six years.

Justice Tong said the offences involved substantial bribe money and lasted a lengthy period, and constituted a serious breach of trust. He reprimanded the defendants for undermining the construction industry's tendering system, and said deterrent sentences must be imposed. The prosecution applied for Wong to pay $2.7 million and Tso $9.5 million in restitution to Wharf. The judgment was reserved.

Wong and Tso were convicted of two joint charges of conspiracy to solicit $24 million from Hip Hing Construction Company and Gammon Skanska for Wong to provide information about the tenders submitted by other contractors in relation to a Wharf construction project. Wong was further found guilty of one count of conspiracy to solicit $10 million from Chun Wo Construction & Engineering for the same project.

The defendants were also convicted of three counts of conspiracy to accept sums of money from Hip Hing for Wong to provide the latter confidential tendering information on three other Wharf projects. Wong was further found guilty of three counts of conspiracy to accept sums of money from Chun Wo and Ping Kee Furniture Company for assisting the latter to obtain construction and renovation projects from Wharf.

At the time of the offences, Wong was responsible for processing tenders submitted by contractors to bid for Wharf's construction projects. Between January 1998 and December 2002, Wong and Tso corruptly assisted a number of contractors in obtaining various construction and renovation contracts from Wharf.

Tso was formerly employed by one of the contractors concerned before establishing W.K. Limited. These contracts included construction or renovation projects at Bellagio Phases I and II, Serenade Cove, Kowloon Station Development package II and Landscape Podium LP2, Hillcrest and Hillview Villas, and the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel.