CityU professor gets 4½ months in prison for offering HK$1,000 bribe to agent

CityU previously declined to comment on the case.

Photo: Felix Wong A City University (CityU) professor has been sentenced to 4½ months in prison for offering a HK$1,000 (US$128) bribe to a Hong Kong property agent, after a magistrate dismissed the defendant’s claims that the situation arose from “cultural differences”.

Du Du, 48, an associate professor at the university’s economics and finance department, was granted bail on Wednesday to appeal against his conviction for offering an advantage to the agent in an attempt to avoid paying HK$16,000 for breaching a tenancy agreement.

The court heard that Du, a mainland Chinese academic who previously studied at Peking University and the University of Chicago, signed a provisional tenancy agreement on November 6, 2022, to rent a flat at the Peak One residential complex in Tai Wai.

But Du soon changed his mind about the agreement and messaged Midland Realty agent Sammi Chung Fong-chau to offer her HK$1,000 to settle the matter for him “as a friend”.

He wrote in the message: “Had this taken place on the mainland, if the two of us had some basic relationship or so, we’d have simply settled it by ourselves without letting our companies know.” Du also described procedures in Hong Kong as “so rigid and methodical”.

During an investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, he told officers that the offer of HK$1,000 was intended as compensation for Chung’s travel expenses and time lost.

He said he blurted out the figure because the typical amount of red packets given in mainland rural villages was 400 to 500 yuan (US$58 to US$72).

The defence argued during mitigation that Du’s actions were based on his experiences of living on the mainland.

But Magistrate Jeffrey Sze Cho-yiu on Friday rejected this argument and said the defendant had been living in Hong Kong for a long time.

He argued that cultural differences were not a valid reason for inadvertently breaking the law, given that it was common knowledge that bribery was considered a serious crime.

Sze declined to grant Du a sentence reduction after his conviction and ordered the academic to serve 4½ months in prison.

Defence counsel Joseph To Ho-shing told the magistrate that his client would soon appeal.

Du was granted a HK$20,000 cash bail, but was required to surrender all of his travel documents and report to police each week.

A CityU spokesman previously declined to comment on the case.

原文链接: 南华早报