The 78-year-old fugitive, James Coe, alias Hui Lok-kwan, was arrested in the US in November 2002. After losing a three-year battle against extradition, which included 22 months in custody in the US, he was brought back to Hong Kong by two US Marshals and handed over to Detective Senior Inspector Emyr Watkin in the morning of November 16, 2005. That afternoon he was brought to the High Court on the return of a Bench Warrant of Arrest and to face a 1989 indictment containing 15 counts of false accounting under the Theft Ordinance and one count of false statement in a prospectus, under the Companies Ordinance.

Coe was remanded in custody for trial. The case was scheduled for trial in June 2006 and in February 2006 Coe offered to plead guilty to two counts of false accounting and one count of false statement in a prospectus, both of which were accepted. Coe pleaded guilty to those counts in the High Court on March 1, 2006.

Mr Justice K K Pang sentenced Coe to 19 months. Significantly no reduction of sentence was allowed for the 22 months Coe served in custody in the US whilst he resisted extradition back to Hong Kong.

The offences Coe committed dated back to the period between October 1982 and June 1983 when he orchestrated an intricate web of deceit attempting to obtain $48 million by issue of a placing document to sell his Chintex shares to members of the Hong Kong public for $6 each. Coe intended to use the proceeds in Chintex's oil refinery project in China.

Coe, along with two accomplices, made arrangements for a subsidiary of his company to buy a shell company for $1,213.50.

Coe made a sham sale of the shell company to the mother of an employee for $19.6 million, and then had financial accounts prepared to show Chintex had made a profit of not less than $19 million instead of a loss of $850,000.

Eventually Coe's capital-raising bid failed and Chintex's share price plummeted, prompting an investigation by the Office of the Commissioner of Securities (now known as Securities and Futures Commission). The case was later referred to CCB for further investigation.

Following a protracted investigation, CCB charged Coe and two accomplices with 15 counts of false accounting and one count of false statement in a prospectus.

Coe absconded while on High Court bail before trial began in November 1990. Trial of the two employee accomplices was held in Coe's absence, which resulted in one being convicted and sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years, and the other accomplice being acquitted.

The court also issued a Bench Warrant for Coe's arrest and an Interpol "Red Notice" was then issued worldwide for the arrest of Coe.

The successful conclusion of Coe's case attests not only to CCB's tenacity and determination in following up on cold cases, but also its commitment to protecting Hong Kong's reputation and integrity as a world-class financial centre.

That Coe was arrested and finally extradited to Hong Kong after a lengthy extradition process, also speaks for the CCB's excellent co-operation and good working relationship with the US Justice Department and the FBI.

Commenting on the Coe case, Mr Kingman K Wong, Legal Attache of the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, said: "The Hong Kong Police and the FBI historically have an excellent working relationship, and have been working very well together. With the information provided by CCB, ultimately we were able to get him (Coe) back to Hong Kong. It was a long process but everything worked very well because of the excellent relationship between Hong Kong and FBI."

Mr Graham Goodman, Senior Government Counsel of the Department of Justice, said that after Coe was arrested in the US, all the supporting documents sent to the US for his extradition were the same documentation that had been on the shelf since 1990. After Coe was brought back to Hong Kong, the case against him "was ready to go" because it was put properly on the shelf, and because no material evidence was missing to prevent a successful prosecution from proceeding.

Summing up his observation about this case, Mr Goodman said it shows that in the cases properly prepared by CCB and the Department of Justice's Commercial Crime Unit, criminals are ready for trial after they are extradited to Hong Kong no matter how long they have been at large and no matter how long they had fought extradition back to Hong Kong.

SIP Watkin and Woman Police Constable Chan Lan-fung summed up the investigating officers' feelings about the case: "We're very glad that we can close a cold case for ever. In CCB such cases never gather dust; they are brought up for review from time to time. We follow up on them vigorously whenever necessary. We are grateful to the US Justice Department and Department of Justice for their invaluable assistance."

Mr Goodman (middle) and Mr Wong (right) with officers of the CCB Fraud Section