HONG KONG -- A millionaire businessman said to be dying of cancer was given a two-year suspended sentence and fined the U.S. equivalent of $692,300 today in a race-fixing scandal that rocked Hong Kong's sporting establishment.
Yang Yuan-loong, a prominent textile manufacturerand officer of the Order of the British Empire, pleaded guilty a day earlier to six counts of conspiring to cheat at gambling by trying to fix the results of horse races.
Yang's lawyer, Anthony Corrigan, sought the suspended sentence on the basis of his client's health. He told the court Yang had uncontrolled diabetes and secondary bone cancer, giving him only weeks or months to live.
The two-year suspended sentence means Yang, 63, will not have to go to jail unless he commits another offense within two years and is subsequently ordered to serve the time by a judge. The fine of $692,300 was close to the maximum possible of $128,200 on each of the six counts.
Yang, who attended Monday's hearing alone and left in a yellow; chauffeur-driven Mercedes, admitted placing bets for jockeys in exchange for which they gave him tips and sometimes agreed to hold back their horses from winning.
The charges stemmed from an investigation into the 'Shanghai Syndicate,' a race-fixing conspiracy alleged to have involved many of the British colony's senior jockeys and to have reached high into its distinguished racing establishment.
The court was told that Yang, one of 22 people arrested on related charges Feb. 20, provided police with evidence concerning a number of his fellow conspirators.
Yang was a voting member of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose tracks register the highest betting turnover in the world. Operating through associates to avoid Jockey Club rules, he owned six horses and exercised some influence over 29 others.
In spite of the maneuverings in which bets were placed on behalf of two or three jockeys in a race in exchange for their making sure their horses did not win, the conspirators were unable to completely control the outcomes and ended up losing more money than they won.
Prosecutor Joe Duffy said Yang and his associates had won $333,000 on nine winning bets during the 1985-86 racing season, but absorbed $2.37 million in losses for a total loss of $2.03 million.
