ICAC charges Donald Tsang with 2 counts of misconduct in office

Former Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was charged by the city's graft-busting agency Monday morning with two counts of misconduct in public office.

Tsang, 70, appeared at the Eastern Magistrates' Courts at 2:30 p.m. 

After the charges were read out to him, he was released on HK$100,000 bail and told he must appear in court on Nov. 13.

Both charges were related to a three-story flat at East Pacific Garden in Shenzhen, the Independent Commission Against Corruption said.

The first charge alleges that Tsang failed, while chief executive, to inform the Executive Council -- during ExCo meetings between Nov. 2, 2010, and Jan. 20, 2012, in which license applications by Wave Media Ltd. (WML), were discussed and approved -- about his negotiations with a major shareholder of WML over a lease for the flat. 

Tsang also failed to disclose a related payment of 800,000 yuan (US$125,800) to a company of that major shareholder of WML in November 2010, the charge alleges.

WML was later renamed Digital Broadcasting Corp. Hong Kong Ltd.

An architect was hired to decorate the flat.

The second charge alleges that between December 2010 and July 2011, Tsang failed to inform the then permanent secretary for the Chief Executive’s Office, the Development Bureau and the Honours and Non-official Justices of the Peace Selection Committee about his interest in the lease of the flat and the engagement of that architect when he proposed that the architect be considered for nomination under the honors and awards system.

The ICAC said the case arose from complaints about corruption and that the agency's enquiries revealed the alleged offences.

As he left the court, Tsang told reporters: "For the past three-and-a-half years, I have cooperated fully with the ICAC investigation. 

"My conscience is clear.

"I have every confidence that the court will exonerate me at the end of its proceedings."

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