The District Court today convicted the former chairman, chairman and three other senior executives of Tse Sui Luen Jewellery Company Limited of conspiracies to offer $170 million in illegal commissions to travel-agency employees, embezzlement and tax fraud.

The five are former TSL chairman Tse Sui-luen, 72, TSL chairman Tommy Tse, 40, former TSL deputy chairman and finance director Oscar Chung, 46; TSL deputy chairman and CEO Peter Gerardus Van Weerdenburg, 49; and TSL's business promotion general manager Wong Ting-fong, 52.

They were found guilty of a total of eight offences - two of conspiracy to offer advantages to agents, two of conspiracy to commit false accounting, three of conspiracy to steal, and one of conspiracy to defraud the Inland Revenue Department.

According to one of the corruption charges, the defendants conspired with others to offer illegal commissions to travel-agency employees for arranging tour groups to patronise TSL showrooms. The ICAC found the illegal commissions totalled about $170 million.

Two other charges stated that the men had conspired with others to falsify accounting documents.

Tse Sui-luen, Tommy Tse, Chung and Wong were also convicted of one count of conspiracy to steal $500,000 from TSL between February and July 2002.

Tommy Tse and Wong were found guilty of conspiracy to steal about $882,900 from TSL between June and December 2002, while Tommy Tse and Chung were convicted of conspiracy to steal about $1,821,900 from TSL between April and July 2002.

The remaining charge stated that between April 2003 and January 2005, Tommy Tse and Van Weerdenburg conspired with others to defraud the Inland Revenue Department.

The judge will continue to deliver his reasons for the verdict tomorrow, while mitigation will be heard on May 6. The men were remanded in the Correctional Services Department's custody.

TSL is a subsidiary of publicly listed Tse Sui Luen Jewellery (International) Limited.