The Independent Commission Against Corruption announced today (1st) that it has charged a senior fire chief of the Fire Services Department for allegedly falsely claiming to have purchased a private flat in San Po Kong for self-occupation, but in fact he bought the flat and then rented it out, suspected of defrauding ICBC (Asia) And the Hong Kong Mortgage Insurance Company Limited approved a 80% mortgage loan of about 7.8 million yuan.
The ICAC revealed that the investigation stemmed from corruption allegations. After the investigation was completed, legal advice was sought from the Department of Justice, and the defendant was charged with the relevant legal advice.
The defendant is Xu Zhifeng, 38 years old this year, serving as a senior fire chief of the Fire Services Department.
He was charged with two counts of fraud, contrary to section 16A of the Theft Ordinance.
The facts of the case allege that the defendant purchased a private residential property in San Po Kong for $9.65 million in April 2020, and applied for a mortgage loan from ICBC (Asia) according to the above plan.
The defendant is suspected of falsely representing to ICBC (Asia) and the JSC Insurance Company from April 16 to July 8, 2020 that he would occupy the property after completing the purchase of the above-mentioned property, with intent to defraud and induce ICBC (Asia) Approved his mortgage loan application and granted him a total loan of about $7.8 million, and the mortgage insurance company approved the mortgage loan insurance application.
The ICAC investigation revealed that after ICBC (Asia) approved the mortgage loan, the property was immediately leased out.
According to the guidelines issued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, banks are required to comply with the LTV ceiling requirements for property mortgage loans.
Banks participating in the Mortgage Insurance Scheme of the Mortgage Insurance Company can
provide up to 80% of the mortgage loan for
self-occupied properties ranging from RMB 6 million to RMB 10 million.
Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (ICBC (Asia)) is also participating in the scheme.
ICBC (Asia) and JSC provided full assistance during the ICAC investigation.
The defendant Xu Zhifeng was granted bail by the ICAC and will appear in the Eastern Magistrates' Courts on Wednesday (August 3) pending referral of the case to the District Court.
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