Trial of former JPMorgan banker begins in Hong Kong with plea of not guilty

KLN Logistics

14/09/2020 09:02

By Sharon Tam and Alun John
    HONG KONG, Sept 14 (Reuters) - JPMorgan  JPM.N  did not
carry out key checks when employing the son of a potential
client, a prosecutor told a Hong Kong court on Monday, the first
day of a bribery trial of the bank's former Asia investment
banking vice-chairwoman, Catherine Leung. 
    Leung, who repeated a not guilty plea on Monday, is charged
with bribing the then chairman of Kerry Logistics Network Ltd
 0636.HK , Ang Keng-lam, by employing his son at the U.S.
investment bank's Hong Kong office in 2010.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N24J0N8  
    She did so, the prosecution said, in anticipation that Ang
would influence his company to give JPMorgan a role on its
up-coming initial public offering (IPO).
    The investment bank did not consult its legal and compliance
department until after the younger Ang's employment contract at
JPMorgan was signed, prosecution barrister Robert Lee said in
his opening submission. 
    Lee also cited an email he said was written by Leung when
Kerry Logistics was in the early stages of preparing for its
IPO. 
    "Son is very keen to do IB (investment banking), but does
not interview well ... The last thing I want is for us to go
slow and they ask another bank, and I am sure someone will give
him a full time offer given the mandate that is up for grabs,"
Lee cited Leung as saying in the email.
    Leung made no comment in court apart from her plea and
declined to comment when approached by Reuters after the first
day of her trial.
    It was not immediately clear whether Ang or his son, Ang
Ren-yi, would be asked to give evidence and neither could be
reached through their employer on Monday after Leung's plea, or
ahead of the trial. 
    Ang Ren-yi left JPMorgan in 2011, the prosecution said in a
statement last year.
    A JPMorgan spokeswoman on Monday referred Reuters to a
statement it made last year, when the bank said: "This is a
historical case, which J.P. Morgan reached agreement on and
settled in 2016." 
    That year, JPMorgan agreed to pay U.S. authorities $264
million to resolve allegations it hired relatives of Chinese
officials - known as "princelings" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jpmorgan-settlement/jpmorgan-to-pay-264-million-to-resolve-china-hiring-probe-sec-doj-idUSKBN13C1Z8
 - to win banking deals.
    U.S. authorities at the time said JPMorgan's Asia unit
created an elaborate programme, called "Sons and Daughters",
that allowed clients and influential government officials to
recommend potential hires.
    Kerry Logistics did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on Monday. A representative said last year Ang stepped
down as chairman of the firm in August 2012 and that JPMorgan
did not participate in Kerry Logistics' IPO in December 2013.  
    

 (Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Robert Birsel)
 ((Alun.John@thomsonreuters.com; +852-28415827;))