A District Court trial was told on Wednesday that TVB might have known its top executive Stephen Chan Chi-wan was to be paid for his participation in a countdown event at a shopping mall in 2009.

The testimony runs counter to allegations levelled by prosecutors that TVB was not notified of the contract involving Chan's appearance.

Testifying on the second day of Chan's corruption and fraud trial was the manager for retail marketing and promotions of Sino Estates Management Au Kwok-hang. The management company served as overseer of the Olympian City event.

Au testified that TVB accounting staff called him after the 2009 countdown event, inquiring if the company had paid HK$160,000 to Empire Advertising and Production Company (IEAP), the production company headed by Chan's personal assistant Edthancy Tseng Pei-kun.

Au said apart from the HK$1.3 million production fees for joint production of the countdown show with TVB, Olympian City needed to pay additional money to invite famous artists to attend, which had also been the practice in the previous two years.

The company, therefore, did not consult TVB on the matter, Au said.

In 2009, Olympian City decided it wanted Chan's popular talk show, Be My Guest, to be part of a New Year's Eve countdown at the mall. Acknowledging that Chan did not fall under TVB's agency, Olympian City turned to IEAP to arrange for Chan's appearance.

Au's company transferred HK$160,000 to IEAP in January 2010 as payment for appearances by Chan and artist Wayne Lai Yiu-cheung. Chan later received HK$112,000 from IEAP.

Throughout the process of preparing the countdown, Au said he had meetings with TVB's production department and TVB had known Chan would attend the event.

Au's superintendent Irene So, general manager of Sino Estates Management, also testified saying the guest list for the countdown had to be assessed and approved by TVB beforehand.

However, prosecutors said Au's statement that he received a phone call from the TVB staff cannot support the claim that TVB had known IEAP receive payment because Au could not confirm the caller actually was from TVB.

Regarding Chan's book launch from Feb 5-7, 2010, Au said Olympian City might not have waived the HK$64,360 site rental for Chan's book-signing ceremony on Feb 7, 2010 if it had known that well-known TVB artists such as Charmaine Sheh Sze-man, Shirley Yeung Sze-ki and Tavia Yeung Yi would not attend.

China Daily

(HK Edition 06/23/2011 page1)