A Hong Kong sales manager has pleaded guilty to offering bribes to a director of Wynn Macau for maintenance contracts involving a total of around HK$34 million ($4.3 million).
In May 2022, the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) revealed that an employee and a former director of two air-conditioning maintenance contractors had been charged with offering bribes totaling about HK$1.5 million ($191,594) to a former director of a hotel group for air-conditioning maintenance contracts to a Wynn Macau hotel involving around HK$22 million ($2.8 million).
In a new update, the ICAC revealed that one of the duo Li Kin-wang, 59, senior sales manager of Oh Luen Air Conditioning Equipment Limited (Oh Luen), pleaded guilty to five charges, including bribery, at the District Court on September 11.
Li faced three charges of offering advantage to an agent and two of conspiracy to offer advantages to an agent, with a judge adjourning the case to September 18 for mention and granting Li bail.
According to the ICAC, Oh Luen and Wai Luen Air-conditioning Limited (Wai Luen) were companies established in Macau and Hong Kong to provide air-conditioning installation and maintenance services to customers, with companies sharing the same proprietor.
Since 2013, Oh Luen had been an approved supplier of Wynn Resorts (Macau) S.A., which operated hotels and casinos in Macau, with Li admitting that since 2014, he started to pay bribes to a then-director of Wynn upon solicitation for obtaining the opportunities for Oh Luen to submit quotations or tenders to Wynn over air-conditioning system maintenance services.
Li confessed to offering three bribes totalling over HK$450,000 ($57,477) to the director by cheque or bank transfer between June 2014 and July 2015, and between November 2016 and January 2017, he also conspired with a then-director of Wai Luen to pay two bribes totalling HK$560,000 ($71,527) to the director.
The Hong Kong ICAC enquiries also revealed that between 2014 and 2017, Wynn had awarded numerous air-conditioning maintenance contracts worth around HK$34 million in total to Oh Luen.
On the other hand, the director of Wai Luen has pleaded not guilty to two counts of conspiracy to offer advantages to an agent, with the trial against him having commenced at the District Court in September.
According to Hong Kong authorities, the Macau Commission Against Corruption and Wynn had rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
