Dim Sum-gate: Chefs jailed for getting kickbacks for placing ‘unnecessary’ food orders

Photo: Jason Jacobs/Flickr
Photo: Jason Jacobs/Flickr

Can you order too much dim sum? On one hand, no, because it’s great.

But in a legal sense, yes — particularly if you work at a restaurant and get huge kickbacks for ordering unnecessarily large amounts.

Like these two chefs, who were jailed this week for seven months each for “conspiracy to accept illegal rebates.”

The pair, charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, received a total of HK$90,000 (about US$11,500) in bribes for placing orders for “unnecessary food items,” according to a statement released by the agency.

The duo — Ho Yuk-hang, 39, and Yuen Chi-hang, 48 — supervised the dim sum section at two separate Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.

Ho, who worked at Sun Ming Yuen Banquet Hall in Yuen Long, pleaded guilty to four counts of “ conspiracy for an agent to accept advantages.”

Tuen Mun Magistracy heard that between April 1 and Dec. 4, 2016, he accepted illegal rebates totaling over $60,000 (US$7,700) from several food suppliers as rewards for placing food orders with those companies.

The suppliers were not named in the statement.

Ho was found out by a colleague in August 2016, to whom he admitted ordering unnecessary food, according to the statement.

Yuen, who worked at Golden Diamond Chinese Cuisine in North Point, meanwhile pled guilty to committing a similar offense between Jan. 1 and Nov. 30, collecting $28,950 (US$3,700) from a representative one of the suppliers.

In sentencing, Magistrate Kelly Shui said acceptance of illegal rebates should not be tolerated in a civilized society.

She, however, reduced the jail terms to seven months from the starting point of 12 months after taking into account the defendants’ guilty pleas and other mitigating factors, according to ICAC.



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