A former top Hong Kong civil servant told a court on Tuesday that he had received a secret payment of 11 million Hong Kong dollars ($1.4 million) "from Beijing" in 2007 through a businessman intermediary, local media reported.
Hong Kong's former chief secretary, Rafael Hui, was testifying in one of the financial hub's largest corruption trials, charged with accepting "concealed and disguised" payments from property tycoons Thomas and Raymond Kwok, the billionaire co-chairmen of Asia's largest developer, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd., seeking government favor.
Hui's testimony broadens the corruption implications of the case beyond Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and raises new questions on the ties between Hong Kong and Chinese officials.