TVB Celebrity News: Stephen Chan pockets TVB FaDans' earnings, asking them to attend events as his 'friends'

Stephen Chan pockets TVB FaDans' earnings, asking them to attend events as his 'friends'

TVB General Manager Stephen Chan's hearing for his corruption case was held yesterday. The prosecutor reveals that in February of 2010, Stephen had both 'public and private uses' when he held his new book press conference. On the sponsor's contract, there was a set price to be paid to the TVB FaDans for attending the event as his guests. However, he hid this fact from the FaDans and just 'patted shoulders' asking the FaDans to participate in the event as his friend. As a result, the FaDans helped Stephen embezzle HK$300,000 of sponsor fees.

The prosecutor's representative, an experienced lawyer (Kwok Tung Ming) reveals yesterday that there are temporarily 58 witnesses to testify on the list. The prosecutor will first summon the sponsoring company's staff to the stand. Next, TVB executives, the 5 TVB FaDans (Charmaine Sheh, Sharon Chan, Tavia Yeung, Shirley Yeung and Skye Chan) and Wayne Lai will be summoned. It is estimated that the climax of the case will appear next month.

On March 11th, Stephen (age 51) was arrested with Idea Empire Advertising & Production Co. (Idea Empire) Director Edthancy Tseng (age 28) for corruption and conspiracy to defraud TVB by the ICAC. According to the prosecutor, at the time of the arrest, Chan was in his duplex unit apartment on Argyle Astrid street with the others who were arrested. This led to cohabitation suspicions.

When the hearing started, the Prosecutor pointed out that when Chan is out doing any type of public jobs, as TVB's General Manager, no matter what the fees are, he must report in writing to TVB for approval. Late 2009, Olympian City II Management Limited collaborated with TVB on the Olympian City Countdown to 2010 Spectacular show. Olympian City spent HK$1.3 million on sponsoring the show and requested for Chan and Wayne Lai to participate in the Be My Guest segment of the show. TVB agreed to this arrangement.

Meanwhile, Olympian City II bid another HK$160,000 through Idea Empire to hire Chan and Wayne Lai for the related segment of the show. When that segment in the show ends, Idea Empire will give HK$112,000 to Chan. However the Prosecutor said Chan never applied to receive that amount of money, while TVB did not know about Idea Empire and Olympian City II's agreement with Chan.

The Prosecutor also said Idea Empire published the new book Stephen 14.2 First Choice early last year (2010) and on February 7, 2010, the press conference was held in Olympian City. In December 2009 through February 2010, Chan started asking TVB artists Charmaine Sheh, Tavia Yeung, Shirley Yeung, Sharon Chan, and Skye Chan to attend Stephen's events for free, like the press conference for his new book; They were to attend the event as a friend of Stephen's and receive no pay. TVB Production Resources Director Virgina Lok agreed and allowed the 5 FaDan to attend the event.

But in reality, Idea Empire had already signed a contract with Olympian City on December 24, 2009. Idea Empire will ensure Olympian City appoint Charmaine, Tavia, and Shirley to attend the event as a condition for Olympian City to provide the space for free. Also, Idea Empire and Mabelle Diamond established an agreement that Mabelle will invest HK$300,000 to fund that event, but Charmaine, Tavia and the other FaDans must attend the event as a condition for their funds. TVB and the 5 FaDans did not know anything about their agreement.

Also, Edthancy and TVB's Business & Marketing department head, Wilson Chan (age 63) successfully got Melco PBL Jogos Hotel to spend HK$5.2 million to sponsor TVB's JSG Singer Anniversary 2009. However, they reported to TVB that Melco only sponsored HK$4.65 million. They also provided assistance to Idea Empire as well, asking Melco and TVB to provide HK$690,000 and HK$550,000 respectively to help fund Idea Empire's event logistics and transportation services. When the event ended, Wilson Chan demanded Melco to pay HK$5.89 million to Idea Empire. Idea Empire deducted the HK$690,000 and HK$550.000 from the sum and gave the remainder HK$4.65 million to TVB as the Melco sponsor fee.