The SCMP reports today on some of the details of the contract which Albert Yeung Sau Shing’s Emperor Entertainment Group has with one Isabella Leong. If any doubt remained that this man is basically a pimp procuring young girls as his slaves then it is pretty much dispelled now.
Yeung’s modus operandi appears to be to find young, attractive teenage girls (Eurasians seem to be favoured) and sign them up on extraordinarily one-sided contracts which bind them as long as he desires, and under which they must provide all and any “entertainment services” that he commands. Occasionally one of them tries to stand up to him. The last to do so publicly was Carina Lau. For her trouble she was kidnapped by Yeung’s hoodlums, gang raped, and videos of the rape are on sale in Mongkok (allegedly) and available on the internet (definitely). Now Isabella Leong has had the balls to take him on as well; it is rumoured in the press that she is being supported in this by Richard Li (son of Li Ka-Shing) with whom she has been linked romantically. If true then this does wonders for Li in my estimation – he had always seemed a bit of a wet fish previously.
On the most recent occasion that the authorities managed to get Yeung to court all of the witnesses suffered complete amnesia and were unable to recall any of the events in question. And even to get it that far it required the ICAC (the policer of the police force, at least that’s how it was originally envisaged) since it appears that the Police proper are in Mr Yeung’s pocket too.
The points in Ms Leong’s claim, as reported by the SCMP {comments added by me} are:
- Neither she nor her mother could read or understand English, the contract language, when they signed.
{Leong was 12 when she first signed}- The contracts bind Leong exclusively to EEG for 10 years and are extendable at its sole discretion.
- The management contract requires she keep her manager “informed at all times of [her] whereabouts” and “shall not leave Hong Kong without the prior consent of [the manager]”
- EEG controls Leong’s finances, receiving all her income on her behalf and deducting its expenses and commissions before she gets anything.
- She is paid HK$5,000 per month, plus royalties amounting to only 0.867 per cent to 2.135 per cent of net sales depending on the medium.
{So if, as is reportedly the case with many of Yeung’s starlets, she was pimped out to Yeung’s friends at $100,000 per night she would get no more than $2,135 of that}- Leong must record an unlimited number of works for EEG and perform all entertainment services asked of her, but it does not have to guarantee she will have work.
{It is widely reported that these “entertainment services” include escort & sexual services for Yeung’s cronies.}- Leong retains no ownership, copyright or control of any of the works.
- In the event EEG agrees to sever the contracts, Leong is prohibited from working in the entertainment industry in any capacity for seven years.
{Unenforceable, except, of course, by threats of violence.}
It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If Ms Leong does succeed in getting the contract thrown out then it opens the doors for all of EEG’s starlets to do the same, fundamentally changing the whole structure of the Hong Kong entertainment industry. It’s not clear that even Mr Yeung’s legendary powers of control & intimidation through his triad gangs could stop that happening.
But then again, he is getting on a bit, so maybe he can’t get it up any more and he doesn’t have any further use for his harem?
Smog's Blog 
If true I do so hope the pimp has a nasty accident falling under a minibus.
Smog,
You have lived in Hong Kong for a very long time I imagine. As have I, for over 30 years going on nearly 40 now. There are a lot of allegedly’s in your post, which makes it pretty salacious (poor reporting if you ask me, because you are begging the reader to make inferences) and I can tell you this much, its been a very long time since anybody has had the Hong Kong police in their pockets. The man may be able to tamper with witnesses through intimidation and make cases fall apart. He may even exploit those who choose to work for him, for whom I hardly have any sympathy for, they are fame seeking social climbers that make cantopop or b grade cinema at best (hardly artistes) and are looking for the easy buck anyway. But I have hard time believing any man in Hong Kong has the police force in his control. Thats not the way it works, my father was a career civil servant with the Hong Kong government and as a result I have plenty of friends whose parents were very senior policemen, and not only would they be offended that you suggest the organisation they worked for is corrupt to that extent. They would probably say it is naive to think that a man who owns a piss pot Hong Kong listed company, with revenues of just a few hundered million US dollars annualy could have the capacity to bend them. It’s ludicrous.
Actually there’s only one “allegedly” and that’s simply because I’m too lazy to go to Mongkok to see if I could buy the DVD (and it would be hard for me as a non-Canto speaker). It doesn’t take long to find a copy online (albeit one which, strangely, has Japanese-style pixelation on certain anatomical features). For the “reportedly”s I simply haven’t had the time yet to look up the articles – this is a Blog, not Wikipedia!
And if the HKP is as clean and efficient as you say, what reason is there still for the ICAC to exist? Why was no-one prosecuted over the publication of a still of Carina Lau from the rape video in Eastweek magazine?
There’s a whole heap of other stuff against him. Both the Canadian and US authorities have him on their “Organised Crime” lists. There’s an article here: http://www.primetimecrime.com/APNS/20030724riggedawards.htm which chronicles a lot of the things he has been involved in.
So what you are saying is that a clean police force shouldnt bother policing itself simply because it happens to be clean. There is a reason that strategy isn’t employed, its a concept called deterrant.
Besides the ICAC (Independant commission against corruption) is designed as an anti corruption organisation with powers extending beyond what the regular police force currently is empowered with and is independant of the police force (at inception in the 70’s, corruption was endemic, which they set about trying to eradicate and did so very successfully) . The agency, is not aimed specifically at the police, it is an anti graft force and polices all of Hong Kong’s various goverment agencies and in a lot of instances, also targets private companies as well. They were very succesfull at inception and if you were around in the late seventies and early eighties, you would remember that they used to dominate news headlines with the amount of arrests they made, and Hong Kong as a result has one of the most corruption free places I would argue out of all OECD countries.
Now Im not saying that the police is totally free from corruption, there will be of course be some low level policeman on the take. That kind of corruption exists in every police force worldwide. But the kind of people someone like Albert Yeung would have to have on the take to ensure he stayed free from prosecution would be very senior policemen. The kind of people that I used to have sunday dinner with, on very nice expat packages or these days local packages earning whopper salaries. And that just doesnt happen in this day and age. Not in Hong Kong not anymore.
I’m not denying that Mr Yeung may be a thug, and that previous cases have fallen apart due to witness intimidation. I have no problem with him treating his starlets like slave labour. If they are willing to work under those conditions to be famous, they dont get any sympathy from me. But the claim that Mr Yeung controls the actions of the Hong Kong Police is simply ridiculous. If they haven’t prosecuted him on other counts, its probably because they cant find anything to prosecute him with. Its not likely a man like him will get his hands dirty anyway.
If I understand correctly, the reluctance of the HK police to act against Yeung is not due to his relationship with them, but instead, his (business) relationship with Communist Party members and the influence they wield.
DB,
Let me make sure I have this right… You are saying that you have no problem with Albert Yeung getting 12 year old girls to sign contracts in a language they don’t understand which commit them to work for him for as long as he wishes for a salary of HK$5,000 per month and to provide any entertainment services he wishes (including sexual services) to anyone that he wishes for as long as he wishes, and prohibits them from working in any entertainment business for seven years after he has no further use for them?
If so then I’m afraid I put you in the same morally destitute category as him.
And I’m not claiming that he controls the HKP, simply that he has created an environment where they regard him as untouchable. I haven’t been in HK as long as you, but I do have a good gweilo friend who is ex-HKP and used to have a regional vice responsibility, and I have discussed the issue of organised crime and triads with him at some length.
No I dont really have any sympathy for anyone who aspires to work in the Hong Kong entertainment industry as a B list actress or cantopop singer, no matter what their age of which i doubt there are many. For a start at that age it is a parents responsibilty not the childs. Secondly sitting around for hours in between takes waiting to start shooting for a film, or spending 12 hours in a studio singing in the hopes that you become famous, hardly constitutes manual slave labour. If the actress/singer met with any success I am almost certain they will exploit it regardless of what their contract says. I work in banking and what tends to happen if you are successful and have the ability to leave, is the employer tends to re negoitiate your contract on more favourable terms because its in everybodies economic interest that you stay and continue working. And I’m almost certain that no court in Hong Kong would uphold a seven year work prevention clause in a contract, any lawyer would be easily able to argue the unreasonibility of it.
If you do have a friend who is ex police at a senior level, and you have had discussions with him about triads, then you would know how impotent they have become over the years and what it would take for a man like Albert Yeung to affect a police inquiry in to his activities.
AY is a gangster and a thug, but even he does not get away with everything. He spent time in jail for organizing an attack on top-jockey Tony Cruz.
Indeed, although I’m not sure you have that story exactly right. The SCMP reported it thus:
“He was banished by the Royal Hongkong Jockey Club in the early 1980s after being convicted of attempting to persuade the victim of an assault by jockey Tony Cruz not to give evidence if the case came to court. He served six months in minimum-security MaHang Prison.”
So it would seem that it was Tony Cruz (presumably one of his jockeys) who carried out the assault.
DB,
You sound like a truly wonderful and warm human being – I guess you are a member of a privileged and elite class insulated from the realities of life. Please continue to enjoy your time on earth.
I think I’ve been most drawn to your total lack of sympathy and empathy – carry on banking you Can Do Go Getter you!
LT
Okay, if you have to be pedantic about it, fine.
empathy for wannabee starlets. Methinks not somehow.
Perhaps we should start empathising with porn stars while we are it, those poor underpaid things.
Isabella Leong is far from an innocent victim. After EEG made her a ‘star’, she thought that she was going to marry Richard Li (Li Ka Shing’s son), and though that she didnt need EEG anymore. Opps… Richard Li got bored of you. And why sign a contract if you don’t know the language it is written in!! Would any of us every do that.
But, yeah, Albert Yeung is a dirty little man. He used to get Joey Yung to do threesomes… WITH HER MOTHER!!!
LT,
Sounding a bit bitter there pal. Not satisfied with your paycheck perhaps??
can’t beloiev Digital Blonde is:
1. so poorly informed on AY after so many years in HK
2. so bigoted towards people who want to provide entertainment for others.
don’t know what db does for a job but i still have sympathy if she faces working under illegal conditions.
seems so irrational to me
DB,
The ‘bitter’ and ‘paycheck’ comment says a hell of a lot more about you than it does about me.
Love,
LT
“He may even exploit those who choose to work for him, for whom I hardly have any sympathy for, they are fame seeking social climbers that make cantopop or b grade cinema at best (hardly artistes) and are looking for the easy buck anyway.”
Jesus wept, so because they’re ‘social climbers’ and you don’t think their movies are very good they deserve to get gang-raped like Carina Lau? And then you accuse others of being bitter? You’re on a wind-up, right?
How do I start a new thread on this obscure blog ?
First you need to get a chicken and you need to cut its head off. Then you sprinkle it’s blood outside a neighbours door and then you nail the chicken to his door. After that you take the chickens head and boil it to make tea. Add milk and sugar to taste and drink the tea.
Then ask smog.
I asked my Flipper amah to follow your instructions, but she accidentally cut her own head off.
What do I do now, sahib ?
Edit the word Flipper.
I dont think DB ever suggested anyone deserved to be gang raped. The point being made is that “social climbing wannabee starlets” deserve as much sympathy as porn stars do. They choose to work in the industry in the hopes of achieving mediocre fame in canto land, hardly a noble goal to begin with. If they do so at terms which you consider unfavourable to them, that is their problem. They should either have chosen a more equitable proffession, or found an employer who is willing to provide better terms before signing a contract. They have the choice after all and if they sign a bad contract because they have stars in their eyes, they only have themselves to blame.
There are real issues which deserve our attention and sympathy, like say global warming, famine, genocide etc etc, if you were to compile a list I’m pretty sure empathising with B list wannabee Hong Kong actresses because they have shitty contracts would be right at the very bottom of it.
We should care if they are being sexually exploited when they are under 18 years of age. Why are you talking about famine and genocide, talk about a non-sequitur…
erm why exactly is jesus crying? anyway if they are under 18, then perhaps outrage should be directed at parents who should know better then to make their children sign contracts which don’t favour them at all??
I know dipper, you should set up a charity for all Hong Kong wannabee starlets who are on shitty contracts because they choose to be and either wilfully signed a contract knowing what a crap position they would be in, or had parents stupid and avaricous enough to do it for them. It would be great, we could even have Paris Hilton as its honourary president and you could be its first secretary. On a shitty salary ofcourse.
I would, Marilyn, but I’m too busy running my counselling hotline for unhappy spinsters racked with bitterness towards the lower orders and their unseemly social climbing.
How noble of you, your erstwhile compassion must make you the envy of everybody you know. The Peace Prize has your name all over it this year . That organisation and the ” I know I signed a shitty contract but I thought I would be famous and now I’ve been seen in compromising positions with Edison Chen I really am” Society will be the first organisations I donate to.
I notice that Joey (can’t remember her other name) was in SCMP yesterday advising that Leong should return to HK to explain her comments and honour her contract.
That’s the Joey that it is alleged had a threesome with Albert and her mother is it? The one it is alleged that Albert still councils on her career in private in various hotel rooms?
And I’m pretty sure having studied a lot of those ‘actress in compromising positions photographs’ closely that Leong isn’t in any of them.
In many of the developed places in the world there are laws against abuses of power by employers over employees – irrespective of their chosen profession or social ‘class’ strangely enough.
So make a donation I’m sure her bank account could use it, and its for a great cause.
I’d rather buy you a nice new dress and a big pie.
I hope ALL the pop stars from HK would become famaus in Asia, Europe, US, America, South Amerca & Australia!
You could do that if you wanted, it might help get it all out of your system and make you feel better about yourself
Britney what exactly are you on about?
Don’t worry about Britney – she’s a local fruitcake who hangs out on expat forums and, now, blogs.
OK then I’ll steer clear from her
Listen I thought about this allegedly business, lets examine the statement being made. It is being suggested that Albert Yeung had sex with a mother and her daughter at the same time. Now call me old fashioned, hell you can even say that I’m a prude, I dont really care. But How many mothers do you think that are out there really that are prepared to have lesbian sex with their daughter whilst a geriatric sits there playing with his todger. Now I dont know about the rest of you, but Id be willing to estimate the number of mothers that would be willing to engage in that type of twisted sexual fantasy at about Zero, but thats just me.
Yes but you don’t think the triads are still a major issue in HK do you? Which makes you rather naive at best.
Your obviously still new to Hong Kong if you think they are still important. Read a James Clavell novel before you came out did you??
LT,
Pot calling the kettle black, you are the guy who believes mother daughter had a threesome or is alleging it, and your accusing someone else of naievity ha.
There are labour laws in Hong Kong there is also a labour tribunal which the Hong Kong government makes available to anyone it considers a first class citizen, which doesnt seem to include domestic helpers for some reason, but it sure does extend to Hong Kong born wannabee social climbing starlets. They are free to take their case to the government. Surprising that they dont huh.
Because, apparently, they get gang raped or similar if they try to take him on! Do please keep up at the back!
There are a couple of other well-documented cases of people crossing Albert Yeung. A local comedian made some comment about him in a show which resulted in him getting his legs broken, for example.
Here is a report from a Google cache of (I think) a translation of a SingTao daily report from 2001 to show how it works:
If the triads aren’t an issue then I wonder why the police have a special anti triad branch? Then there is the sensitivity over the t-shirts. Then there is the organised vice, the import of drugs, the trading in contraband & the smuggling of II’s. So I guess the triads have all f’ked off to Phuket for a holiday. I wonder who the tattooed guys are they pick up in bar fights and I wonder who runs the protection rackets? They must be the general public taking opportunity as it passes I guess.
(POI – having two women in bed does not guarantee lesbo action unfortunately (from my limited experience)).
Yes of course I’m very naive and know nothing of what goes on in the world and I’ve been in HK and E.Asia for a mere nanosecond.
But – yeah – if you think the HK entertainment industry is as open, transparent, accountable and regulated as the international banking system – you carry on.
I think the bottom line of all this is that Albert Yeung, and his extended family (Gilbert, Ricky, Vincci etc.) are all certified scumbags. Dr. Stanley Ho -not exactly a saint himself- refused his daughter to marry, or even stay close, to Gilbert Yeung.
Hong Kong’s polite society has always distanced itself from the lovely (Chiu Chow) Yeung clan.
I can tell you haven’t been here that long because if you had then you would know when triads actually used to mean something in Hong Kong and there is a massive difference between what it was like two decades ago and what it is now, and there is a very good reason for it. Guys at the top, like Albert Yeung put their money in to equities and property and other legitimate businesses during the boom years of the eighties and early nineties and made so much money, that their illegitimate businesses just became liabilities, ones which they could go to jail for and do heavy time. So where do you think they concentrated their efforts. The other reason is similar and that is that Hong Kong has economically transformed, there are far more opportunities now for school kids then there were three decades ago and far more of them opt for them, rather than organized crime these days. There was a time when it was fashionable and now its just not, and if you had been here for a significant enough period you would know it, you would see it and you would feel it.
Back when I was growing up and doing the under aged drinking thing a friday night rarely went by when someone wasn’t bottled by a bunch of tripod hooligans or got into fistycuffs in Lan Kwai Fong or Wan Chai with them and how often do you see that happening now. Now if anything happens its usually one drunk expat beating on another.
I know Albert Yeung is a complete thug, because I used to go down Club 97 when it was the happening place in Hong Kong during the early 90’s and his son Gilbert used to be in there giving it the large one about his dad and how connected he was, getting into fights with hapless expats and using his escorts to do the actual fighting. I mean this is a guy who is an English public school preppie who would probably go running to mama if he received the slightest scratch on his skin, But I digress
What are we left with, kiddie gangs from the 14k or Sun Yee On running two bit extortion rings somewhere in Mong Kok finding it tougher and tougher to recruit from schools. Mid level managers running prostitution rings, engaged in drug smuggling and a police force and customs that has dramatically cleaned up over the years, leaving little or no room for graft, making life much for difficult for them. And top managers who are more preoccupied with legal ways of making their moolah, then the Illegal. All of it suggests the industry is nothing like it used to be and it reflects on the front pages of the SCMP or Standard. We used to have gang related violence appear daily and a major drug seizure probably once a week. Back then it was run of the mill, now I’m genuinely surprised when I read there’s been a drug seizure in Hong Kong.
Its nothing like it used to be and you would know all of this because of course, you’ve been here “longer than a nanosecond”. I mean just because you’ve seen a man sporting a dragon tattoo when you’ve been out on the piss in Wan chai doesn’t mean they are in control of the city and everyone is living in fear. It means fuck all and how touristy is that. To be honest you do sound like a newbie expat who got most of his information reading noble house or watching re runs of yellow thread street. I’m sure you’re probably not, but I doubt you’ve ever left the expat bubble your probably ensconced in and have never had a real life experience with those who you deem to be a force to be reckoned with.
PS why do you keep referring to my job, you seem to have a real chip on your shoulder about investment bankers, I really wonder why that is.
I think I mentioned banking twice. SHIT! That’s three times – god I’m obsessed with your job. Damn me and my offspring etc.
‘Back when I was growing up and doing the under aged drinking thing a Friday night rarely went by when someone wasn’t bottled by a bunch of tripod hooligans’
You were born & bred in Stoke-on-Trent too?
twice perhaps, with no real relevance to the discussion and always in a derogatory fashion, perhaps not an obsession but certainly a chip.
Hi. I am a bit tired. I will explain later what I have in my mind.
> D Blonde, please ignore the crazy comment from Smog. I am not this kind of person.
Dear DB, You mentioned your job first – I couldn’t care less if you poked old mens bums with sticks for a living – each to their own.
Fair enough
49 (now 50) comments! That’s more than Ordinary Gweilo gets in a year.
He doesn’t mention lesbian sex with cantopop tartlets enough though.
It would take more than tits and clits to rescue that site.
Nah, tits and clits can rescue any site, believe me.
(Actually, maybe not his.)
So at the end of the day, it’s still the human flesh that appeals to the human mind.
This post has far more comments than any other posts on your blog!
Oh I’ve seen this DB on Asiaexpat too, she seems to be a very eager err…poster. This is a very small circle right….? I can’t help wondering how many expat guys have slept with each other’s girlfriends.
These are all true stories, Albert Yeung is a mafia boss and he controls the young girls and sell them to clients as a pimp and makes profit of which is a criminal charge in HK, US, Europe, and China. He does sell the girls in HK, US, Europe and China. Thank you. He has no protection from HK Police and China. Thank you.
Arrest Albert yeung and Gilbert Yeung and Emperor Entertainment Group once and for all. All can testify.
Albert yeung is mafia boss of HK 14K mafia group. He does drugs, prostitution, online prostitution and illegal gambling and all illegal activities. Arrest him.
The above article is true in every sense of it. Arrest Albert Yeung.
For the many people coming here through Google looking for the “Carina Lau rape video”, I have not the slightest intention of helping you!
If, on the other hand, we get to see the Albert Yeung funeral video it won’t be a moment too soon.
Wow, Google skewing search results in favour of Albert Yeung.
As you might be aware, he is attempting to sue Google because it automatically generates the word “triad” when his name is typed into the search box.
The lawsuit is still ongoing, but if you type “Albert Yeung” now – the t”riad” suggestion no longer comes up.
Some of the suggested searches by Google – like pairing his name with the term “net worth” – yield far lesser hits than the triad suggestion.
Google bows to triads. Whatever happened to Google’s motto – “Don’t Be Evil”?