33 arrested over HK$150 million fraud involving Hong Kong tech grant schemes

Hong Kong’s anti-corruption agency has arrested 33 people on suspicion of defrauding two government technology funding schemes of more than HK$150 million (US$19.2 million).The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Friday that it had dismantled two syndicates this month and arrested 24 men and nine women aged between 27 and 66, including a former Cyberport Management Company employee.The two funding schemes were the Digital Transformation Support Pilot Programme (DTSPP) and the Technology Voucher Programme (TVP), overseen by the Cyberport Management Company and the Innovation and Technology Commission, respectively.Matthew Chang Chor-ming, an ICAC principal investigator, said the two syndicates filed about 1,500 applications for both funding schemes to defraud HK$150 million in subsidies, but the watchdog managed to intercept HK$120 million.He reiterated that the syndicates’ methods were relatively “high-end” because they not only forged documents to cheat the subsidies, but bribed various individuals to “bypass the system”.“If the system is weak itself, it would not be necessary to take the risk and cost to bribe someone,” he said.