A former employee who deceived a publishing firm into making payments of HK$380,000 to various contractors by fabricating invoices was charged by the ICAC with fraud and offences under the anti-bribery law.

Hung Cheung-wai, 48, a former employee of Chinese Baptist Press (International) Limited (CBP), faces a total of eight charges - four of fraud, two of agent using document with intent to deceive his principal, and two of conspiracy for agent to use document with intent to deceive his principal.

He was released on ICAC bail and would appear in the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on Tuesday for mention.

The defendant was an employee of CBP between February 2020 and June 2021. He was responsible for arranging the production or republication of books and placing printing and design orders with contractors.

It is revealed that the defendant had falsely claimed to CBP that four of the contractors had completed the editing, typesetting, proofreading, and design works of 78 republished books and to induce the firm to pay for those works in about HK$340,000 with 61 invoices.

The defendant also allegedly conspired with another contractor to use two sets of false invoices and payment request forms to mislead CBP that the contractor was entitled to service fees of HK$27,000 for completing the printing and typesetting works of three other books.

Hung was also said to be using two additional sets of fake invoices to trick the publishing firm into paying service fees for a contractor for HK$11,000.

The ICAC investigation revealed that none of the five contractors conducted any republication or relocation works for CBP. The operators of four contractors were also revealed to be relatives and friends of the defendant.