The District Court has jailed two former senior executives of a listed telecommunications firm four years for conspiracy to swindle the company and its subsidiaries out of $12 million in consultancy fees through bogus agreements.

Hau Tung-ying, 54, China Motion Telecom International's former chairman, and Li Bin, 41, the firm's former executive director, were found guilty of conspiracy to defraud.

From September 2000 to April 2005 they conspired with others to defraud the firm and its two wholly owned subsidiaries ChinaMotion NetCom (Asia) and China Motion Holdings.

Without the board of directors' knowledge, they dishonestly caused NetCom to enter into three consultancy agreements with two contractors, Bioroad Developments and Headwise International.

Under the agreements the contractors would provide professional services for the operation of NetCom in Asia Pacific and North America at a monthly consultancy fee ranging $100,000 to $432,000. Under the defendants' control, the contractors never provided the services.

NetCom, China Motion Holdings and China Motion Telecom were caused to release payments totalling $12 million under the consultancy agreements.