It takes one to know one, they say. Not surprisingly, then, it was fellow taipan Gimli son of Glóin who was the first to note that John Terence Hung, former top honcho at Wheelock and Wharf and the first Eurasian President of the Hong Kong Cricket Association, has been charged by the ever so slightly kinky ICAC with allegedly taking a HK$200,000 payoff in exchange for using his position as an honorary voting member of the Hong Kong Jockey Club to put forward a membership application.
Given that the Jockey Club allows only its 200 honorary voting members to nominate new members (and just two each a year, making a total of 400), one can imagine the pressure brought to bear on these worthy few by gentlemen in dark glasses with a penchant for wearing Gucci suits two sizes too big for them and for driving a black Mercedes S-Class with blacked-out windows and a Guangzhou license plate, whose overriding ambition in life is to attach a chrome plated HKJC badge to their grille.
Hung, a familiar figure on the balcony of the top bar at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, where he likes to go for a quick puff, only stepped down in December last year after ten years as President of the Wong Nai Chung Gap Road club, which he joined after a distinguished playing career for rivals Kowloon Cricket Club.
A former General Committee member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, where he may have bumped into Lily Chiang (whoseown appointment with the ICAC has been put back to 16 March next year as a result of her application to be tried by a jury of her peers), Hung was Chairman of the ill-fated Hong Kong Sports Development Board for eight years until a year before its dissolution in 2004. During Hung's tenure at the SDB, former DAB golden boy Gary Cheng Kai Nam was convicted of graft and deception offences while serving as a paid consultant to the board.
Hung's latest setback comes just as his horse Headingley (named after the cricket ground in Leeds) finally finds some form, with a second-place finish at Sha Tin on Saturday – albeit in a Class 5 event. (There's been no Class 6 ever since the Jockey Club decided in its wisdom that pit ponies and donkey derby winners should be spared the hairpin bends of the old sand track at Happy Valley.)
Headingley races in black and white, an omen perhaps for JT as he awaits his fate.
Given that the Jockey Club allows only its 200 honorary voting members to nominate new members (and just two each a year, making a total of 400), one can imagine the pressure brought to bear on these worthy few by gentlemen in dark glasses with a penchant for wearing Gucci suits two sizes too big for them and for driving a black Mercedes S-Class with blacked-out windows and a Guangzhou license plate, whose overriding ambition in life is to attach a chrome plated HKJC badge to their grille.
Hung, a familiar figure on the balcony of the top bar at the Hong Kong Cricket Club, where he likes to go for a quick puff, only stepped down in December last year after ten years as President of the Wong Nai Chung Gap Road club, which he joined after a distinguished playing career for rivals Kowloon Cricket Club.
A former General Committee member of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, where he may have bumped into Lily Chiang (whose
Hung's latest setback comes just as his horse Headingley (named after the cricket ground in Leeds) finally finds some form, with a second-place finish at Sha Tin on Saturday – albeit in a Class 5 event. (There's been no Class 6 ever since the Jockey Club decided in its wisdom that pit ponies and donkey derby winners should be spared the hairpin bends of the old sand track at Happy Valley.)
Headingley races in black and white, an omen perhaps for JT as he awaits his fate.
8 comments:
Sometimes you just wondered when people have tons of money, what's the difference would it make to add some peanuts in their bank account.
...one can imagine the pressure brought to bear on these worthy few by gentlemen in dark glasses with a penchant for wearing Gucci suits two sizes too big for them and for driving a black Mercedes S-Class with blacked-out windows and a Guangzhou license plate, whose overriding ambition in life is to attach a chrome plated HKJC badge to their grille....
Sorry to piss on you purple prose, but the intended beneficiary of the "loan" was a woman.
If he was sick, would his wife say to him, "You're not very well, Hung"?
Isn't that more the kind of thing a mistress would say, fumie? A wife - speaking from bitter experience - is more likely to say something along the lines of "Why do you always have to make such a fuss when you're not well?"
Bob, indeed, you are right. 44 years old too. Sounds right up fumie's alley.
Please leave my alley out of this.
Sir,
The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that this is a plot to drive all Taipans from the shores of Hong Kong - thus forcing the market open to Chinese conglomerates. Why else would there be such a fuss over what equates to pocket money?
It is well-known that the Independent Commission Against Cantopop now lies firmly within Beijing's grasp. This time they have set their sights on an easy target - Hung was widely held by Hong Kong's business elite to be a second-tier Taipan, at best.
Note that they shall be afforded no such opportunities with Rothwell-Gornt, which has recently strengthened its legal and compliance teams.
May your personal investment portfolio undergo a fortuitous and unexpected turn for the better.
Best of joss,
Indeed, QG, Hung was excellent scapegoat material.
Hung's 3 year old SABINA is running at Shatin today. Worth a punt.
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