Bribery of HK kindergarten with 1.1 million; all 13 parents sentenced to prison

To help their children win at the starting line, a group of Hong Kong parents bribed the administrative director of a popular international kindergarten with a large amount of money—ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars—just to obtain a priority admissions spot. On March 31, 13 parents and 1 middleman were each sentenced to prison terms of 8 to 14 months in the District Court, with the judge saying their actions “undermined the clean and incorrupt foundation of Hong Kong society,” and that they must be punished severely as a warning to others.

According to the case, during three academic years from 2019 to 2022, the 13 parents from 11 families, together with middleman Siu Yuk-bong, respectively bribed the then administrative director, Jenny Lam, of the English Schools Foundation International Kindergarten (Wu Kai Sha). The amounts ranged from HK$20,000 to HK$200,000, for a total bribe sum of about HK$1.1 million. After the 12 children from the 11 families had passed the kindergarten class interviews at the school, they had originally been ranked lower on the school’s admissions waiting list; however, after each set of parents paid the bribe, they were all able to bypass the normal queue order and instead secure priority admission credentials.