HK billionaire Lau found guilty in Macau land deal case

HONG KONG - Billionaire Joseph Lau, the head of Chinese Estates Holdings, was found guilty of bribery and money laundering in a land deal in Asia's gambling capital of Macau on Friday and sentenced to five years in jail, Hong Kong media reported.

Hong Kong's fifth richest man, Lau was sentenced by a court in Macau, a former Portuguese colony which is now a Chinese special administrative region, Hong Kong's RTHK reported.

Lau, chairman and CEO of Chinese Estates, and another high-profile tycoon, Steven Lo, chairman of the South China Football Club and movie-and-music entertainment group BMA Investment, were charged with offering a HK$20 million (S$3.2 million) bribe to a former Macau government official, in a move to secure land near Macau's Las Vegas style Cotai strip.

Shares in Chinese Estates were suspended on Friday afternoon ahead of the ruling.