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Tuen Mun industrial building maintenance works involved in bid rigging fear of 4 arrests, including the manager of the property management company

2022-01-18T11:20:23.124Z


An industrial building in Tuen Mun was tendered for building maintenance works earlier, during which the owners' corporation and the consultant company responsible for selecting the contractor were sent letters and calls to threaten, and the consultant company was even drenched in red oil.


An industrial building in Tuen Mun was tendered for building maintenance works earlier, during which the owners' corporation and the consultant company responsible for selecting the contractor were sent letters and calls to threaten, and the consultant company was even drenched in red oil. The incident was suspected of involving bid rigging , conspiracy to fix prices or market share and other illegal acts.

The Organised Crime and Triad Investigation Division of the Police and the Competition Commission launched a joint arrest operation for the first time, arresting four men involved in the case in various districts in Hong Kong, including a manager of a property management company, some of whom had a triad background.

The operation continues, and more arrests cannot be ruled out.


Ho Ka-lun, Senior Inspector of the Police's Organised Crime and Triad Investigation Division, told a press conference this afternoon about the case, saying that the Police had earlier received information that an industrial building in Tuen Mun was conducting tenders for the maintenance of the building. During the process, a series of criminal cases, including assault, criminal intimidation and criminal damage, occurred one after another.

Due to the anti-competitive conduct involved, the Police and the Competition Commission launched an investigation.

At the end of December last year, before the owners' corporation of the building voted for the contractor, the owners' corporation and the consulting company responsible for the assessment of the building's maintenance received threatening letters and telephone threats respectively. The tendering contractor also attempted to influence the voting result by coercion against the members of the corporation who participated in the vote.

Later, when the consulting company was producing the consulting report, it received an anonymous phone call, asking the consulting company to change the consulting analysis report. The consulting company eventually refused to give in, but a few days later, the consulting company was drenched in red oil and tortured.

After investigation and intelligence analysis, the police and the Competition Commission launched a joint operation code-named "Dazzling Shadow" for the first time today.

During the operation, the police successively arrested 4 local men (aged 28 to 51) in Wong Tai Sin, Tseung Kwan O, Tai Kok Tsui and To Kwa Wan, including a senior executive of a property management company. Some of them also had triad backgrounds; Suspected of committing crimes such as "criminal intimidation", "criminal damage" and "as a senior officer of the company, consent or connivance of the company to commit criminal intimidation and criminal damage".

The police then detained the suspects, searched their residences and workplaces, and seized mobile phones and documents as evidence.

It is understood that the senior managers of the property management company who were arrested have a 14k triad background.

The Chief Manager (Operations) of the Competition Commission, Wilber Au, said that in this joint operation, officers searched two offices of a property management company involved in the case, which was suspected of engaging in anti-competitive practices during the maintenance tender process for a Tuen Mun industrial building. behaviors, including bid rigging, colluding to set prices or dividing up the market, etc.

The Commission found that a representative of the company had committed a series of suspicious behaviors during the tender process, which may be regarded as an attempt to manipulate the results of the tender; coupled with the fact that the person has a triad background, the Commission has reasonable doubts The tender has been the target of conspiracy by certain parties.

In addition, the Commission is also investigating the contractors who submitted this tender. It is suspected that some contractors are engaging in anti-competitive behavior, and some of the tenders are particularly suspicious.

The Commission has completed its search operations against certain contractors and seized some exhibits, including documents and telephone records. The investigation is still ongoing.

However, when the reporter asked about the scale and amount of the repair work of the building involved, how many contractors participated in the bid rigging, and how they benefited from it, both the police and the Competition Commission said that the investigation was underway and refused to disclose details.

01 News

Source: hk1

All news articles on 2022-01-18

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