Ex-IPIM chief sentenced to five years in prison

The former president of Macau’s technical immigration agency has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment without probation on several charges.

Jackson Chang, the ex-president of the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM), was found guilty of corruption, abuse of power and money laundering by the Court of First Instance in October 2020.

Disputing the verdict, Chang filed for a retrial. His lawyer managed to get bail approved by the court.

During the retrial in February this year, the court revisited all evidence, including Chang’s travel records, text messages between Chang and another suspect, Ng Kuok Sao, as well as the flow of funds.

Following its analysis, the court found Chang accountable for abuse of power, violation of duty to confidentiality and accepting illicit interests. Chang was said to have obtained money from Ng in return for leaking internal and confidential data to the latter.

The former IPIM chief was sentenced in the first trial to 11 months in prison with six months of probation, on an accusation of inaccuracy in financial data.

The retrial extended his sentence to five years on the accusation, while eliminating the probation element of the sentence.

At the court, Chang’s lawyer, Álvaro Rodrigues, announced an application for appeal right after hearing the sentence. He later told the press that he was confident about winning the appeal.

After hearing from the defense, the court retained the measures levied on Chang, namely barring him from leaving Macau and requiring him to report to the court regularly.

Ng is now serving his prison term in Macau. He was sentenced to 23 years’ imprisonment at the retrial, after being sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment while he was at large during the first trial. He was apprehended in Zhuhai last month.