A former private banker in China has been charged by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) for bribery.
Ryan Gwee Yuan-kerr, a former private banking head of Standard Chartered Bank was charged for accepting a bribe of US$150,000 (US$19,273) on 11 August 2011.
The Hong Kong ICAC said in a statement that the case arose from a corruption complaint. Yuan-kerr is said to have accepted money from major shareholder/chairman of an insurance company as a reward for handling his bank account and bank accounts of the companies controlled by him.
During the time of the alleged offence, he was supervising the sales team from the private banking division of StanChart Hong Kong, as well as handling customers and promoting various banking services to them.
Bail
Yuan-kerr has been released on bail, and appeared in court on Wednesday and no plea was given. The case was adjourned until 7 February and according to local media reports, Yuan-kerr was granted bail but ordered not to leave Hong Kong.
Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong has also rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation, the commission noted.
Yuan-kerr was Shanghai-based head of private banking for China in January 2011, according to a statement from the bank and had been with Standard Chartered Private Bank for 10 years in various based in Singapore and Hong Kong.
He left the bank in November 2011 and joined Beijing Tian Jian Hua Xia Medical Management Company as vice president in China, according to his Linkedin profile. After that, he was the Hong Kong-based group managing director at ZACD, a Singapore-headquartered asset manager specialising in real estate. Currently he is managing director in Hong Kong at Asia Capital Pioneers Group.
