Former Macau deputy prosecutor Kong Chi was today sentenced to 24 years in prison in a combined ruling for crimes of corruption, malfeasance and abuse of power.
The sentence was handed down after Macau’s Court of Second Instance (TSI) convicted Kong Chi to an additional 12 years for six counts of passive corruption for unlawful acts, five counts of malfeasance and one count of abuse of power. “In legal cumulation with the prison sentence applied during the first phase of the trial,” the collective court decided to sentence the defendant to “a single sentence of 24 years in prison,” according to a statement from the Court of Final Appeal (TUI).
Kong Chi had previously been sentenced to 21 years in February last year — after the public prosecutor appealed an initial 17-year sentence — in a case in which he was accused of helping individuals evade justice.
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In that ruling, the court also ordered the forfeiture to Macau authorities of assets held by the former deputy prosecutor valued at 14 million patacas (€1.5 million), deemed to be “of unknown origin” and considered by the five judges to have come from bribes disguised as “fees or consultancy charges” paid by money exchange business couple Choi Sao Ieng and Ng Wai Chu.
Choi and Ng had received sentences of 14 and six years respectively, later revised by the TUI to 16 and ten years. Today, Choi Soi Ieng received an additional three years for three further crimes — one count each of malfeasance, passive corruption for unlawful acts and abuse of power — bringing her total combined sentence to 16 years and nine months.
Portuguese-nationality lawyer Kuan Hoi Lon, also involved in the case, was again acquitted of all charges by the TSI today. Lawyer Ho Kam Meng was sentenced to 15 years for eight crimes — membership or support of a secret society or association (1), passive corruption for unlawful acts (4) and malfeasance (3).
In 2017, former prosecutor Ho Chio Meng — who led Macau’s public prosecutor’s office from the 1999 handover from Portugal to China until 2014 — was sentenced to 21 years for multiple crimes including fraud, money laundering and criminal association.
