Prosecutor unimpressed as lawyer bewails police PowerPoint testimony

The prosecution interrupted a defense lawyer in the Suncity trial as he complained about a Judiciary Police (PJ) inspector using a PowerPoint presentation while testifying as a witness in a court hearing this week.

The prosecution had subpoenaed the PJ inspector, surnamed Mak, to testify in the trial. The inspector gave his testimony using a PowerPoint presentation.

Defense lawyer Pedro Leal objected, believing the witness was making a presentation rather than responding to questions raised in court.

Before Leal had finished his objection, prosecutor Lai U Hou interrupted by raising his voice and accused the lawyer of harassing the witness. He said, “you should not interrupt him! Who are you to speak at this moment? You are disturbing the testimony!”

Presiding judge Lou Ieng Ha suggested both sides calm down before asking why the PowerPoint presentation was necessary. Mak said it was for convenience and clarity. The judge accepted his justification and Mak was permitted to continue his presentation.

Lasting over two hours, the presentation covered documents that included instructions on onside betting, communication records and other evidence.

The PJ inspector said the documents recorded formulas used to calculate “operations”, a term the prosecution and the police believe refers to side betting.

According to Mak, investigations have pointed to Suncity including “operations” as an internal responsibility. He also testified that Alvin Chau, boss of Suncity, had signed in approval on a MOP9 million’s investment for an additional functionality in a computer app to improve the reliability of messages.

The PJ added the app was used for side betting.

Mak also said the computer server Suncity had rented from local telecom service provider CTM had a cluster named New Operations, in which records between 2014 and 2021 related to 97 side betting companies were found. Of these 97 companies, 30 had shares held by Chau or his “main camp”. “Self-operated” means Suncity operated the companies.

Mak then showed a phone record dated March 2016, in which a secretary to Chau told him that Cheung Chi Kin, also a defendant in the case, wanted to discuss side betting revenue with him. The messages also concerned proportions of each side betting company, about which the secretary sought Chau’s confirmation.

Chau’s lawyer Leong Weng Pun asked Mak for proof of Chau’s ownership in the “main camp”, and for proof that Chau had replied to the messages. Mak responded: “if I were the boss, I would get my employees to handle it.”

In a file named Operation ROLLING_ROLLSMARY, which Mak presented to the court, there are 68,000 records dated between December 2013 and March 2021 that allegedly concern side betting. Mak emphasized that evidence found in different forms echoed each other.

However, Leong questioned why a piece of evidence showed a gambling time that was 17 minutes earlier than the conversation time. Mak said he did not know why, but insisted that it echoed intelligence collected through phone tapping.

At the end of the session, Chau asked to speak and said he did not understand why the “main camp” was considered related to him.