Senior Macau prison officer ‘bribed by inmate with HK$20,000 bottles of wine and luxury food'
High-ranking officer accused by the city's anti-graft agency of accepting lavish gifts from inmate, including fine wines and luxury foreign travel
PUBLISHED : Monday, 09 March, 2015, 2:26pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 10 March, 2015, 2:04am
Niall Fraser and Toh Han Shih
Items allegedly received as bribes were recovered from the suspect's home. Photo: SCMP Pictures
A high-ranking Macau prison officer accused of taking lavish bribes from a inmate in return for special protection behind bars has become the latest victim of Beijing's campaign to clean up the city, it has emerged.
Mobile phones were among items seized from the prisoner's cell. Photo: SCMP Pictures
The chief prison officer was showered with gifts including HK$20,000 bottles of wine, luxury foreign travel and accommodation plus expensive food such as abalone and ginseng for allegedly "turning a blind eye'' to the unidentified prisoner's "illegal acts'', according to Macau's Commission Against Corruption.
His arrest - in a sting operation that included raids inside the prison and at the officer's home - comes in the wake of President Xi Jinping's call late last year for Macau to clean up its casino industry, establish clean government and build an economy less reliant on gaming.
It is also the first time since Macau returned to Chinese rule in 1999 that a high-ranking prison official had come under suspicion, the commission said.
The anti-graft agency only identified the suspect as a chief prison officer surnamed Wong and said the alleged bribes had been going on for "a long time'', an admission that one source close to the administration described as highly significant.
The authorities have declined to identify the prisoner, say why he is behind bars or what consequences he might face in connection with the investigation.
"At this moment, we have nothing to add to the statement we have released,'' a spokesman for the agency said last night.
The source said this was a sign that the government was under pressure to deliver on Xi's demands. "It is highly significant because it underlines that even long-standing patterns of bad behaviour that had been tolerated previously were not immune from action,'' the source said.
Wong, whom the commission said was responsible for the daily operation of prison cells, allegedly received the bribes over a long period to allow the prisoner to commit unspecified crimes.
The officer has been suspended from duty and banned from leaving Macau, while further arrests have not been ruled out.
The commission said the prison officer was bribed with bottles of wine worth HK$20,000 each, luxurious foodstuffs, cosmetics, travel, hospitality, catering and accommodation.
Some of these items were seized from the officer's home after the suspect was arrested, the commission said. Prohibited items were also found in the inmate's cell, the anti-graft agency added.
In January, Macau police arrested more than 100 people, including gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun's nephew Alan Ho and 96 alleged prostitutes, in a crackdown against vice operations at a hotel in the city.
Also in January, officials from the mainland's Ministry of Public Security visited Macau and met local financial regulators and senior bankers.
During his visit to Macau in December, Xi said the city should tighten regulation of the casino industry, which has turned the city into the world's biggest gaming location.
The sheen has been taken off Macau's economic success story by Xi's crackdown and an economic slowdown in the former Portuguese enclave that has seen gambling revenues slump and casino share prices plummet.
