It is the corruption case of the century, and these could be the hottest 37 case-file pages of the whole investigation – but no-one wants to talk about them. The deafening silence surrounding the dossier – to which Macau Business has had access – comes down to the political sensitivity surrounding the circumstances which led to former senior government official Ao Man Long being jailed for 27 years on 57 counts of corruption, money laundering, abuse of power and unjustified wealth. As Ao languishes in Coloane Prison we can reveal that new suspects are under investigation – a number of them very well known and powerful local businessmen.

Investigations by the Commission Against Corruption (CAC) into the former secretary for Transport and Public Works’ litany of kick-backs and pay-offs have uncovered the involvement of several key businessmen – but the information has been kept under wraps – until now.
Anti-corruption investigators have applied to the Public Prosecutors Office (PPO) for the right to probe the bank accounts of the new suspects, their families and associated business dealings.
New suspicions first arose when detectives delved deeper in Ao’s so-called “friendship notebooks”. These were where the disgraced government official kept all the details of his meetings and business dealings with a long list of Macau businessmen.
Several sources contacted by Macau Business have revealed that from these notebooks, 37 pages have been designated “extremely hot”.
This assessment seems to be shared by the CAC and the PPO. Phone calls and requests for meetings yielded no response. Despite a number of attempts to simply discover if this material has been placed under “judicial secrecy’’, preventing publication, we have had no reply (see “Too hot?” below).

The cases

From a notebook and a calender seized from a desk in Ao’s home, the CAC dossier opens with the case of a man surnamed Chan.
It details meetings held between 2001 and 2003 which the anti-corruption investigators pointed to an “intimate relationship’’ between the two men. Other documents indicate that the meetings continued to take place until as late as July 25 2006.
Information from these documents has left investigators in no doubt that the relationship included the existence of alleged “bribery” cases. And they are not shy to illustrate this with several examples.
“In the 2002 friendship notebook, there are references to ‘Ho Tong 200(100=E14)’ and ‘Ho Tong 100 + Vasco100’ – this means that Ao Man Long would receive MOP2 million to sign-off on the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library contract to J&T, for which he effectively received MOP1 million in bribes”, the CAC charges.
“In reality, the Chief Executive dispatch number 305/2003 was published on December 23rd 2003, adjudicating the Sir Robert Ho Tung ampliation project to J&T, valued at MOP16,897,960.00. The MOP2 million bribe represented 12 percent of the total amount”.
This wasn’t the end of it, the 2005 and 2006 notebooks also reveal that additional work was carried out on the library, for which the builder had to pay an extra MOP2 million to the former secretary.
The notebooks from 2002 and 2004 contain details regarding the same businessman. Among them is the construction of the Vasco da Gama Garden car park, opposite the Hotel Royal “in exchange for a MOP2 million bribe”. On March 14 2003, the project was given to the Chong Luen – Shun Heng consortium, for MOP36,984,860.00.
Other examples include the approval of the construction of a hotel from one of the Cotai Strip casino operators in exchange for MOP5 million, of which “Ao Man Long has already received two million”; three million for the approval of a landfill in the Inner Harbor’s K6 area, given to Companhia de Engenharia e ConstruÁo da China; and MOP16 million – two percent of the total value – for the construction of a social housing complex, blocks B and C, in Ilha Verde.
This last project was worth MOP799 million and was adjudicated on September 13 2006 by Chief Executive’s dispatch 277/2006.
The list of cases seems never ending: “five million for the ampliation, up to nine-times, of Areia Preta’s lot R construction area”, of which Ao Man Long “received two million in 2005 and the remaining three million in 2006”; “7.6 million received in exchange for adjudicating the requalification works of the Tap Seac zone to Companhia de Construção Shun Heng, with a total value of 156,565,544 patacas”.
The above are a few examples that the CAC considers irrefutable, another refers to MOP4.5 million for the construction of a hotel in Taipa.
According to the investigations, the businessman used his relatives to “deposit money” into an account numbered 861520001249 at the Industrial and Commercial Bank and to Wing Hang Bank account number 845971200, both in Hong Kong.
These accounts were “controlled by Ao Man Long” and belonged to Ecoline Property Ltd and Best Choice Assets Limited.
Overall, the dossier which Macau Business has had access to covers eight deposits, with amounts ranging from MOP1.6 million to four million, totalling HK$19,238,700. Between 2002 to 2006, Ao allegedly received more than MOP23 million, of which MOP19.2 million was placed in the above accounts.
The CAC petition to the court seeks access not only to Chan’s bank accounts but those of his relatives and partners in the companies under investigation. The petition also requests “the exemption of bank confidentiality regarding all
accounts held by Shun Heng and J&T”. The same request was made in respect of all people mentioned in the report.

Fancy watches

Another name to surface is a businessman called Loi and the handing over and exploration of a piece of land near the Pou Seng fireworks factory. The land in question was granted as a lease, without the need for a public tender and this happened via a dispatch fom secretary Ao, dated August 8 2005.
The premium was set at MOP95.5 million and in exchange, says the CAC, the secretary received three million patacas and the option to receive a duplex apartment following the conclusion of the work by Companhia de Desenvolvimento Predial Sai Hei Hou Yuen.
Among the several gifts the businessman allegedly gave to Ao, were three watches worth a total of HK$1.8 million. The receipts and the watches from Luk Fook jewelry – a white gold Blancpain, a Van Cleef & Arpels and a gold Girard Perregaux – were found in a safe at Ao’s home.
According to the CAC, Ao received “at least six million, besides the watches and the agreement to own a duplex apartment”.
The partners of Ho Chun Kei construction company are also under investigation, accused of paying MOP1.2 million in cash to Ao, as well as indications that the company gave real estate worth four million to Ecoline Property Ltd, a company controlled by the former secretary.

Hong Kong meetings

Apart from meetings in Macau with several businessmen, Ao Man Long also had regular encounters in Hong Kong with a well-known impresario surnamed Hong.
The CAC suspects payments of MOP1.7 million of alleged “compensations for the authorisation of several projects and the revision of the use of a specific lot of land”.
Another equally well-known businessman, Mr. Ng, is also on the list of suspects. Based on the 2005 and 2006 friendship notebooks, relating him to a MOP1.5 million payment and the gift of a penthouse in a building to be built in Taipa.
Other companies also fell within the scope of the investigations, the Kun Fai-GZM consortium, to which were adjudicated ampliation and remodeling works of the Taipa stadium. The dossier clearly states that: “There are strong indications that, between 2002 and 2005, Ao Man Long received at least US$800 thousand in exchange for the adjudication of the mentioned project”.

The water business

Between 2001 and 2003, Ao’s notebooks implicate a person called Robinson from whom the former secretary may have received MOP5.5 million.
According to the investigation, Robinson was a top executive with Engenharia Hidráulica de Macau until 2003. The company provides operational and maintenance services to the residual water treatment plant at the Macau International Airport and the Macau peninsula plant.
Authorization had to come from Ao Man Long, who worked at the Residual Waters Treatment Plant and Incineration Plant Bureau from 1992 to 1999, the investigators explain.
The company was awarded several contracts between 2001 and 2003 and, in 2005, a contract that involved “hundreds of millions” and lasts until 2010.
All would be well if it were not for the “strong indications” of “active and passive acts of corruption” between Robinson and Ao Man Long, “aiming to secure the authorisation for the mentioned projects”.
Another company, CEI, is equally in the sights of investigators, as well as one of it partners, surnamed Li, who may have had “21 meetings” with Ao up until 2006.
Several contracts to provide operational and maintenance services in the water treatment plant in Taipa are under suspicion, along with 250 thousand euros allegedly given to the former secretary in exchange for the adjudications.

More construction projects

The long list of suspicions includes other construction companies and the Companhia de Engenharia e de Construção da China (Macau) does not escape the attention.
Because Ao Man Long wrote down all the details, investigators were quick to find what they consider to be “strong indications of corruption” in the case of the adjudication of nearly MOP800 million for the construction of blocks B and C of social housing in Ilha Verde. Added to that, is the suspicion that Ao received one million patacas in exchange for the construction of the new Naval Workshops instalations.
The Tak Fat Kin Ip company is also listed for the adjudication of the ampliation works of Estrada Almirante Marques Esparteiro and the construction of the Cotai complementary residual drainage system. Ao Man Long allegedly received MOP480 thousand for the first project and 7.9 million for the second.

Too hot?

Several approaches by Macau Business have met with silence from the Commissioner Against Corruption (CAC) and from the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO).
We understand that investigators and public prosecutors don’t want to divulge information which could harm an ongoing investigation, but the same cannot be said regarding a fundamental question: is this information – which we now report – under a judicial secrecy order?
Although we have a right to inform, our publication of this information is not intended to obstruct the course of justice in any way. But the fact remains that no one, not from the CAC nor from the PPO, has been able to tell us if our publication of the information would violate judicial secrecy.
The deputy commissioner, Afonso Chan, did not reply to our inquiries, merely asking his secretary to ask us if the case was related to Ao Man Long. We told her that we could not confirm over the phone, and since then all contact from their office has ceased.
We also met with the Head of the Judicial Affairs Department, with much the same result. We weren’t even given the chance to show her the documents we had and ask her the fundamental question of judicial secrecy. They rejected our offer to view the documents.
Without their cooperation or support, the only option left for us was to meet our first responsibility as a new magazine:
to inform.

by Paulo A. Azevedo