Hong Kong opens first trial in ICAC's HK$520 million building repair bid-rigging case

The first of the five cases opens in the District Court on Wednesday, The Standard reported. The 23 defendants were arrested in the ICAC's operation "Fire Net" in January 2023 and charged that September. At the time, the anti-graft agency listed them as 12 middlemen, five project contractors, one project consultant, three members of owners' corporations or committees, and two property management employees.

They are accused of conspiring to offer and accept bribes, an offense under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, and of conspiring to defraud. The ICAC alleges that middlemen offered bribes to owners' committee members, property managers and a consultant to steer tenders, site supervision and interim payments between January 2018 and May 2023, with bribes topping HK$6.5 million. It also alleges that some defendants inflated quotes for minor works and kept rivals out of a lift modernization tender. The charges have not been proven.

Individual contracts ranged from about HK$460,000 to more than HK$160 million. The ICAC's 2023 announcement listed 10 residential and commercial buildings; The Standard put the number of properties at 16. When it laid the charges, the agency said most of the renovation contracts had not yet been awarded to anyone in the case. It told The Standard that its building maintenance sweeps since 2023 have led to more than 200 arrests and charges against 35 people and two companies in nine cases, halting more than HK$500 million in suspect tenders.

The case predates the November 2025 fire at Wang Fuk Court, after which repair tendering in Hong Kong came under wider scrutiny. Reports did not say which defendants stand trial first or when the other four trials are scheduled.