Rafael Hui Is a Rat Not a Hamster

The unfolding saga of Penfold (aka Rafael Hui Si-yan), in particular his business and personal life, is beginning to be revealed in court ...

The 66-year-old former Chief Secretary, like many high-status Hong Kong males, has admitted to being a rat having a mistress (unsurprisingly, a "young woman from Shanghai"). This in itself is not particularly shocking. Rather it is the amount of money Rafael Hui, a retired civil servant, has at his disposal that is of public interest.

Rafael Hui said that he spent up to HK$8 million on an “intimate” young female friend from Shanghai. Pic Dickson Lee

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Reference

Rafael Hui 'gave HK$8 million to young woman he was having intimate relationship with' (SCMP; paywall)

PUBLISHED : Monday, 15 September, 2014, 1:26pm

Stuart Lau stuart.lau@scmp.com

Former chief secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan told a court today that he had given up to HK$8 million to a young woman from Shanghai with whom he had an "intimate" relationship.

Giving testimony at the city's biggest graft trial, Hui admitted showering the woman with several million dollars, and gifts such as handbags and watches.

“In the year 2008, and the one or two years that followed, I gave some money to a female friend in Shanghai,” said Hui, who was a non-official member of the Executive Council at the time.

“I had not known her for a long time,” he said. “When I first met her, it was in a social gathering in Hong Kong.”

Hui’s counsel, Edwin Choy Wai-bond, asked: “Is this Shanghainese female acquaintance a young woman or a married woman?”

Hui answered: “Maybe I would say, a young woman.”

Choy then asked: “Is it right to say your relationship with her was at times intimate?”

Hui agreed. He said he sometimes met the woman in Hong Kong and sometimes in Beijing. But they did not meet too frequently, he added.

Hui recalled giving her “several million” Hong Kong dollars.

“I do not recall the exact amount. But I think at least seven or eight million,” he said.

Some of the money was for her to buy property while some of it was used to make investments, the court heard.

“I did give her some gifts,” Hui added.

“Like bags and watches and that type of thing?” his lawyer asked. Hui answered yes.

“You were generous in giving her those gifts as well?” his lawyer went on.

“For the value of those gifts – of course it was not low. But I would not say they were luxurious items either,” Hui said.

Hui, 66, faces eight charges related to bribery and misconduct in public office.

He allegedly received HK$27 million in cash from the property magnate Kwok brothers, also standing trial, in return for being their "eyes and ears" in government.

Thomas Kwok, 62, faces one charge of conspiracy to offer an advantage to Hui and two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.

Raymond Kwok, 61, faces four charges, including one with Hui of furnishing false information. SHKP executive director Thomas Chan Kui-yuen, 67, and former Hong Kong stock exchange official Francis Kwan Hung-sang, 63, each face two charges.

All have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues before Mr Justice Andrew Macrae.