A former Hong Kong government official was on Friday denied bail in a US case accusing of him using bribes to secure business deals.
Former Hong Kong secretary for home affairs Patrick Ho (何志平) was last week jailed after being charged with paying bribes on behalf of a Chinese energy conglomerate to the president of Chad and the Ugandan foreign minister.
US Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman rejected a bid by 68-year-old Ho’s lawyers to have him released on US$1 million bond and put under home detention with electronic monitoring at a rented Manhattan apartment, saying that she agreed with prosecutors’ argument that he was a flight risk.
One defense attorney said he would appeal the bail decision.
Ho and 61-year-old former Senegalese minister of foreign affairs Cheikh Gadio were charged in Manhattan federal court with violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international money laundering and conspiracy.
Prosecutors allege that Ho hatched the scheme at the UN when Ugandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa was president of the UN General Assembly.
Beginning in October 2014, the pair allegedly arranged bribes to secure business advantages for a Shanghai-headquartered multibillion-dollar conglomerate that operates internationally in the energy and financial sectors, court papers said.
Arguing against bail on Friday, Assistant US Attorney Daniel Richenthal told Freeman that Ho is worth up to US$8 million, has no ties to the US and is facing more than 10 years in prison if convicted.
“His incentive to flee is massive,” Richenthal said. “His ability to flee is massive.”
He also argued that the officials Ho allegedly bribed would have incentive to help him get out of the US and into countries without extradition treaties.
“There are a lot of people who would rather not see what the defendant did aired in open court,” Richenthal said.
Defense attorney Edward Kim described his client as a respected US-trained eye doctor and former Cabinet-level official in Hong Kong.
“To flee would be a disgrace,” Kim said.
“It would destroy everything he worked for. It would destroy his reputation,” he added.
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
‘VERY DIRE’: This year’s drought, exacerbated by El Nino, is affecting 44 percent of Malawi’s crop area and up to 40 percent of its population of 20.4 million In the worst drought in southern Africa in a century, villagers in Malawi are digging for potentially poisonous wild yams to eat as their crops lie scorched in the fields. “Our situation is very dire, we are starving,” 76-year-old grandmother Manesi Levison said as she watched over a pot of bitter, orange wild yams that she says must cook for eight hours to remove the toxins. “Sometimes the kids go for two days without any food,” she said. Levison has 30 grandchildren under her care. Ten are huddled under the thatched roof of her home at Salima, near Lake Malawi, while she boils
RSS