Hong Kong convicts ex-ICBC executive for bribery

A former senior executive of Chinese banking giant ICBC has been found guilty of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars, bottles of wine and a watch as bribes, Hong Kong's anti-graft watchdog said. Chan Yick-yiu, former head of real estate and finance of the bank's Hong Kong unit, was convicted over the handling of loan applications, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said in a statement late Saturday.The 44-year-old was found guilty by a district court Saturday over nine counts of charges including accepting cash of HK$2.5 million ($321,000), five bottles of red wine and a luxury watch from a businessman.The ICAC said the judge ruled that the prosecution had "proved beyond reasonable doubt" on all charges against Chan, accused of helping the businessman and his firms to prepare credit proposals for loan applications.The former banker will be sentenced on Tuesday. ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, is the world's largest bank by market value. Its Hong Kong unit is known as ICBC (Asia). Chan was among six people arrested last year as part of a corruption probe related to the loan scandal, alongside the businessman and Derick Chan, corporate banking department head of ICBC (Asia).Derick, who is not related to Yick-yiu, pleaded guilty earlier to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to HK$3.3 million to assist the businessman in extending repayment period of loans. He will be sentenced on August 19.