Mo Yuk-ping, wife of a jailed Shanghai tycoon appeared on court Thursday in Hong Kong charged by the ICAC ( Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption ) for allegedly defrauding five banks of 89 million HK dollars (11.4 million US dollars).

No plea was taken on the court. Magistrate Ian Candy adjourned the case until Jan. 13, 2005, pending transfer to District Court.

Mo was granted cash bail of 200,000 HK dollars. She was also ordered to reside at the reported address, not to leave Hong Kong,and not to contact prosecution witnesses.

Mo, a director and shareholder of Win Victory Holdings Limited, was charged of conspiring with other persons to defraud the banks by dishonestly causing Hong Kong Nam Hoi Enterprise Limited (Nam Hoi) to apply to the banks for the issue of a total of 23 letters of credits in favor of Win Victory.

In order to support the letters of credit applications, they had allegedly submitted false documents to the banks, purportedly evidencing genuine underlying commercial transactions between Nam Hoi and Win Victory.

As a result, the banks released a total of 89 million HK dollars to Win Victory under the letters of credit.

The alleged offenses took place between June 2001 and March 2003, said the ICAC.

Mo is the wife of Chau Ching-ngai, who was sentenced to three-years prison in June in Shanghai.

Source: Xinhua