CY Leung received US$6m in secret fees from Australian firm: Report

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Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying faces questions over secret US$6.4 million payments he reportedly received from Australian engineering firm UGL, before he was elected to the top post.

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File photo: Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying. (AFP/Dale de la Rey)

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SINGAPORE: Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reportedly received £4 million (US$6.42 million) by Australian engineering company UGL. In exchange, he was to support the company's interests in Asia, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
In a contract dated Dec 2, 2011, before Leung was elected to his current position, UGL agreed to pay him the stated amount, and was related to a deal that saw UGL buying the insolvent property company DTZ Holdings. He was a director of DTZ and Chairman of its Asia Pacific operations when the decision to appoint administrators to sell the company's assets to UGL for £76 million, the report on Wednesday (Oct 8) stated.

"DTZ Holdings' prospects depended on Leung's network of managers and clients in Hong Kong and mainland China," The Sydney Morning Herald report stated, adding that the £4 million was made in two instalments in 2012 and 2013. Leung became Chief Executive in July 2012.

In response, Leung's spokesman Michael Yu defended the Chief Executive's actions, saying that the payments related to past, not future, service.

"The payments therefore arise from Mr Leung's resignation from DTZ, not any future service to be provided by him," said Yu in the The Sydney Morning Herald report.
"Both the resignation from DTZ and conclusion of the agreement with UGL took place before Mr Leung was elected as the chief executive. There is no requirement under our current systems of declaration for Mr Leung to declare the above."

UGL said in The Sydney Morning Herald report that Leung's deal was not stated in any public document, but it had no duty to do so. Its main creditor, Royal Bank of Scotland, knew of the deal and deducted the amount from DTZ's purchase price, it added.

"This was a matter for the seller, as it was a necessary payment for the protection of the value of the business," said UGL. "The acquisition would not have proceeded if this value was not protected and assured."

The report by The Sydney Morning Herald came on the heels of the pro-democracy street protests, many of whom are students, that brought Hong Kong to a near standstill last week. The under-fire Hong Kong leader was called on to resign by protesters, but he declined to do so.

Formal talks between the Hong Kong government and student protesters are set for this Friday as numbers at demonstration sites dwindled to a few hundred on Wednesday.


- CNA/nd


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