HONG KONG Trends and Developments Contributed by: Gareth Hughes, Emily Lam, Philip Rohlik and Tiffany Wu, Debevoise & Plimpton
Prevention of Bribery Ordinance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Order 2025 On 20 June 2025, the HKSAR government (the “gov - ernment”) published the Prevention of Bribery Ordi - nance (Amendment of Schedules 1 and 2) Order 2025 (the “Amendment Order”) in the Gazette to expand the list of “public bodies” to include four additional institutions and their employees and officers to the regulatory regime of the Prevention of Bribery Ordi - nance (Cap 201) (POBO). The Amendment Order took effect on the same day. The POBO was last amended in January 2021 when Schedule 1 of the POBO was expanded to include HKMC Annuity Limited and HKMC Insurance Lim - ited. The Amendment Order continues this trajectory of incrementally expanding protection in areas where heightened corruption risks may arise. “Public bodies” and “public servants” under the POBO Under the POBO, public bodies are subject to more stringent anti-corruption obligations than private organisations because they carry out functions affecting public interest. Public bodies are defined to include any board, commission, committee, or other body specified in Schedule 1 of the POBO, and public servants are defined to mean any government officer, any employee of a public body and any member of its governing body specified under Schedule 2 of the POBO. The Amendment Order The Amendment Order introduces amendments to Schedules 1 and 2 of the POBO by expanding the ambit of institutions recognised as public bodies under the POBO to include four new institutions, namely the Hong Kong Investment Corporation Limited (HKIC), Hong Kong FMI Services Limited, OTC Clearing Hong Kong and CMU OmniClear Limited (collectively, the “New Public Bodies”), to the list of public bodies listed in Schedule 1 of the POBO. Accordingly, the employ - ees and officers at these New Public Bodies would also be subject to anti-bribery restrictions under the POBO, and these restrictions are extended to any person doing business with any of the New Public Bodies.
The government considers that, given the important role played by these four New Public Bodies, in par - ticular the HKIC, which is entrusted with the signifi - cant task of supporting the development of innova - tion and technology as well as strategic industries via investment in Hong Kong, it is imperative for them to be designated as public bodies under the POBO. In view of this, any interactions with, among others, the employees and officers of the New Public Bodies will be subject to stringent scrutiny. ICAC and SFC Joint Operation Against Suspected Market Manipulation and Corrupt Practices ICAC’s collaboration with other regulators remains a key theme in the enforcement of the POBO. A recent example is the joint operation conducted by the Inde - pendent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on 23 July 2025, which targeted a sophisticated syndicate suspected of manipulating the share price of a listed company and engaging in corrupt practices. Code - named “Leverage”, the joint operation was carried out under the framework of the existing Memorandum of Understanding between the ICAC and the SFC, which demonstrates the increasing integration of enforce - ment efforts between anti-corruption regulatory bod - ies with the aim of combating anti-corruption and complex forms of financial crime. Operation “Leverage” involved an extensive search across 14 locations, which included offices of a list - ed company and SFC-licensed broker firms. In the course of the operation, the ICAC arrested a former chairperson and a former executive director of the listed company for suspected bribery, money laun - dering and market misconduct, in contravention of the provisions under the POBO, the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, and the Securities and Futures Ordinance. Specifically, the syndicate allegedly conspired to use fabricated internal records and public announcements of the listed company, which purported to showed that the listed company had entered into a share sub - scription agreement and formed a joint venture with a Mainland company involving transactions exceeding HKD20 million. The syndicate is accused of having manipulated the market and/or created false mar -
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