Wayne Lai and Charmaine Sheh’s Statements Shed Light on Stephen Chan’s Corruption Trial

Caption: Stephen Chan’s corruption case is currently on its 10th day of trial.

On July 7, 2011, TVB artiste, Wayne Lai, (黎耀祥) was summoned to take the witness stand in TVB executive, Stephen Chan’s (陳志雲) corruption trial case. Wayne made a televised appearance for the 2011 New Year’s Eve Countdown, which was the alleged case in Stephen’s hearing. In court, Wayne claimed that he had accepted a minimal “friendship appearance fee”, on his own accord, to attend this event and that no one forced or pressured him to do so.

The prosecution and the defendant’s lawyer counsel both agreed not to summon the five TVB actresses [who accepted reduced appearance fees] to court but would instead read their respective statements in court. Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼), one of the celebrities who attended Stephen Chan’s book signing, gave a statement that since the activity had no monetary incentive, she initially did not want to attend. However, since the request came from Stephen Chan himself, she could not decline. At that time, the Executive Producer who was rushing a series alongside her, pointed out, “It’s a request personally from Mr. Chan himself so I have to let you go.”

TV King, Wayne Lai, stated that he was not clear on the relationship between Stephen Chan and the second defendant, Edthancy Tseng [owner of the Public Relations firm who arranged the artist appearances at reduced fees]. Wayne recalled an incident in a public area during 2009 where he heard Stephen introducing Edthancy as his manager while Edthancy referred to Stephen back as his boss. Wayne Lai praised Edthancy as being diligent in upgrading himself and a man who attended to every needs of the artistes. Wayne also remarked that Edthancy was a talent in organizing events and activities.

On November 2009, TVB Variety Department and Edthancy Tseng took turns in contacting Wayne Lai, inviting him to attend the New Year’s Eve Countdown at Olympian City. Since a TVB Variety Department staff clarified that TVB was not issuing any televised appearance fee, Wayne estimated that the appearance fee would be handled by Edthancy hence and Wayne’s wife and manager, Julia.

Charmaine Sheh Was Called Twice by Stephen Chan

Wayne Lai’s wife, Julia, later brought up that the appearance fee was at a minimal low price, however after discussing it with her husband, they decided to accept the job for a $20,000 fee (HKD). This was a great contrast to the usual minimal appearance fee of $40,000 to $50,000 HKD. Wayne and Julia were only willing to accept this dismal friendship appearance fee of $20,000 (HKD) due to their past frequent collaborations with Edthancy. Wayne also added that no one had forced or pressured him to do so. After the televised appearance, Edthancy immediately emerged with four red packets, each containing $5,000 (HKD), and handed them to Julia.

With regards to Stephen Chan’s book signing event in February 2010, Wayne did not charge any appearance fee so as to show support for Stephen. When asked about who invited him, Wayne said, “Who invited me ah…Actually I can not really recall now.”

Furthermore, both the defense counsel and the prosecution agreed not to summon the five TVB actresses, who made promotional appearances at reduced fees, to court but would instead read out a statement drafted by them. The actresses included Charmaine Sheh, Sharon Chan (陳敏之), Shirley Yeung (楊思琦), Tavia Yeung (楊怡), and Skye Chan (陳倩揚). They noted that Stephen Chan did not place any pressure on them to attend his book signing event. However, Charmaine Sheh, Sharon Chan and Shirley Yeung opinionated that if the event had any trace of commercial motive, unless it was a TVB program or to throw support for Stephen, they would never ever attend without charging a fee. Except for Sharon Chan and Skye Chan, the rest of them did not know Edthancy.

Charmaine Sheh who had already left her employer, TVB, submitted a statement that Stephen Chan had called her twice. First, in 2007, when he wanted her to be on the program, Be My Guest "志雲飯局", but she has since forgotten whether she had received an appearance fee for it. The second was during February 2010 when she was rushing to film TVB drama, Can’t Buy Me Love "公主嫁到". At the time, Stephen Chan asked the Executive Producer to arrange a time and release Charmaine for his book signing. The Executive Producer told Charmaine, “Because this is personally requested by Mr. Stephen Chan, I have to let you go.” However, there was no appearance fee.

Charmaine Sheh had all along assumed that the book signing event was actually a TVB event until February 2, 2010 and realized that it had the sponsorship of a jewelry business. In return for her appearance, she only received Stephen Chan’s new book, a watch and diamonds. Charmaine professed that if there was no appearance fee, she would not have attended it. However since it was requested by Stephen Chan, she could not decline and went on to say, “Had it not been a request from Mr. Chan, I definitely would not have attended.”

Shirley Yeung Thought It Was a TVB Activity

Shirley Yeung maintained that she has always handed any outside bookings or engagements to her manager. Like Charmaine, Shirley also thought that the book signing event was a TVB event and hence did not chase for payment.

Tavia Yeung pointed out that last January, attending the TVB Anniversary Awards Ceremony Dinner, Stephen had invited many artists present to turn up at his book signing event to support him. On the spot, Stephen took a photo of Tavia and used it as promotional material for his book signing. Even though she knew there would be no appearance fee, Tavia still agreed to attend due to the charitable message behind the event and to show support for Stephen. However, she did not know that the event had sponsorship.

Stephen’s former secretary, Ms. Yang Hui Zhong, was a witness at the court hearing. She highlighted that in Edthancy’s email exchanges with Stephen, Edthancy acknowledged Stephen as “Dear Master” and addressed himself as “Mentee.”

Ms. Yang mentioned that a large chunk of Stephen’s outside engagements were accepted by Edthancy’s company however TVB’s external affairs arm, operations department and other departments would, at times, transfer external events/activities and clients to Stephen. Ms. Yang also revealed that Stephen asked her to save all the external events/activities on a disk but she only followed up on the arrangements for the events. Regarding whether Stephen had factually reported everything to his superiors, Ms. Yang was uncertain but she knew that Stephen would submit some parts of the disk copies to his supervisors, Wilson Chan Wing-suen (former head of Business Department) and Mark Lee Po-on (General Manager of TVB). For example, the 2009 huge profit-generating theatrical stage version of Be My Guest, Stephen had reported the findings to his superior, Chan Wing-suen.

TV King Wayne Lai Commands a Minimal Appearance Fee of $40,000 HKD

TV King Wayne Lai’s and the five TVB Fadans’ asking fees were exposed yesterday in court. Top tiers, Wayne Lai, Charmaine Sheh and Tavia Yeung who each bagged an award at the TVB Anniversary, had achieved elevated status in their asking fee, with each commanding at least $40,000 HKD in appearance fees.

Except for Charmaine Sheh who can keep all her appearance fees, the other four TVB fadans were contractually binded by TVB management contacts. The TVB fadans received a basic monthly salary while their appearance fees went into TVB’s account first and after deducting their commission, the fees were returned back to them. According to Skye Chan, TVB deducted 30% commission hence artistes rarely cut their prices.

Charmaine Sheh Extremely Fixed in Her Asking Price

Yesterday, the prosecution read out statements from the six TVB artists. Among them, only Wayne Lai had a non-managerial TVB contract. And among them, Wayne Lai, Charmaine Sheh and Tavia Yeung have the highest asking prices. While Shirley’s asking price was unknown, Skye Chan’s minimum asking price was $8,000 HKD.

Wayne Lai, who stood at the witness stand yesterday, said that his outside engagements were always handled by his wife, down to the negotiations of price and arrangement of dates. Asked about his appearance fee being exposed, Wayne Lai laughed and said his asking price was an open secret and did not mind revealing it before the public.

The five TVB fadans provided statements to ICAC that TVB sent a permanent manager to them to discuss acceptance of outside engagements and that they rarely intervened with it. They only knew that the appearance fee would be adjusted according to work requirements and specifications.

“No. 1 sister”, Charmaine Sheh, obviously exercised strict criteria for accepting job appearances. She reiterated that the nature of the job must be easy, the duration should be short and the preparation should not require much time. The fee would be adjusted higher if she needed to sing a song or perform a catwalk. Unless it was an activity for charity or to gain public exposure, otherwise there was absolutely no room for fee negotiations. Charmaine also noted that she has the final say about whether to attend the event. The rest of the four fadans said they received a basic monthly pay from TVB but the money gathered from the appearance went through TVB’s hands first and after deducting commission, the remainder were returned to them.

Below were highlights from TV King Wayne Lai and the five TVB fadans:

Wayne Lai:

Appearance fee -> $40,000 to $50,000 HKD

Significance of Statement:

Stephen Chan had never introduced Edthancy Tseng to Wayne Lai. Stephen addressed Edthancy as his manager while Edthancy referred to Stephen as his boss.

Charmaine Sheh:

Appearance Fee -> At least $40,000 HKD; Prices will increase if singing or modeling is required

Significance of statement:

Stephen Chan’s book signing had no appearance fee, as a result, Charmaine did not wish to go. Since Stephen Chan wanted her to be there, she had no choice but to oblige.

Shirley Yeung:

Appearance fee -> Not disclosed yet

Significance of statement:

Had she known that there was commercial intent and not just to help Stephen promote his book, Shirley would not have attended since there was no appearance fee.

Tavia Yeung:

Appearance fee $40,000 to $50,000 HKD

Significance of statement:

In January 2010, Norman Leung held a TVB Anniversary Awards Dinner and at the dinner, Stephen Chan invited many artists to attend his book signing event and even took a photo of Tavia for promotional purposes. At the dinner, Tavia immediately agreed to attend Stephen’s book signing.

Skye Chan:

Appearance Fee -> $8,000 to $22,000 HKD

Significance of Statement:

Skye Chan remarked that as a new artist, regardless of company or external jobs, she was not calculative about the appearance fee and as long as there was free space in her schedule, she would attend any event, so as to increase future work opportunities.

Sharon Chan:

Appearance fee -> $30,000 to $40,000 HKD

Significance of statement:

Had she known that the activity was not purely to promote Stephen Chan’s new book and it was not a TVB event, Sharon Chan would not have attended since there was no appearance fee.

Next Adjourned Hearing for Stephen Chan’s Corruption Trial:

Prosecution would summon the TVB employees who have interacted with Macau’s City of Dreams, a sponsor of a promotional event arranged by Edthancy’s public relations firm.

Source: qq.com
Translated by: Ah K @ JaneStars