A U.S. federal appeals court has rejected an appeal by former Hong Kong Civil Service Commissioner Patrick Ho Chi-ping. The Associated Press and other media reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, New York, ruled on Dec. 29 that Ho’s conviction by a U.S. jury for bribery of African officials was “proper” and upheld his conviction.
He was convicted in 2018 of seven counts of bribery and money laundering under the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $400,000. After deducting the time served on remand, Ho was released early from prison and returned to Hong Kong in June 2020. The reason for his early release was reportedly due to his good behavior in prison.
Ho appealed his conviction on seven counts last year, but the judge did not rule when the appeal was heard by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in March this year. The Court of Appeals announced on the 29th of this month that the conviction was upheld and Ho Chi-ping was still guilty on all seven counts.
Lawyers representing He Zhiping have not yet responded to the U.S. court’s decision to dismiss the appeal, the Associated Press reported.
He was arrested in late 2017 after allegedly using a U.S.-based NGO as a cover for bribing Chad’s President Idriss Deby and Uganda’s current foreign minister, Sam Kutesa, then president of the U.N. General Assembly, in exchange for a Chinese energy company’s local oil business.
Court documents do not reveal which Chinese energy company was involved. However, at the time of his arrest, Ho was the executive vice president and secretary general of the China Energy Foundation of Hong Kong, a non-governmental organization established by China Huaxin Energy, which also has “special consultative status” with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. The Foundation also has “special consultative status” with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
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