Hong Kong Court Convicts 3 in Match-Fixing Case

A Hong Kong court convicted two soccer players and a betting agent on Friday for bribing fellow players to rig matches across the city's top two football leagues in a scheme spanning 2021 to 2023.

Brian Fok, a 32-year-old Nigerian-born former Hong Kong Under-23 defender, Luciano Silva da Silva, 38, and Waheed Mohammad, 29, were found guilty following an investigation by the city's Independent Commission Against Corruption. The operation involved more than 30 matches, primarily in the HK First Division, where Fok and Silva da Silva played, and included bets worth tens of thousands of dollars. The trio conspired to fix results by intentionally losing games and placing illegal wagers.

Fok first approached a teammate on the Hong Kong Football Club team in the HK Premier League in October 2021, offering 10,000 Hong Kong dollars per match to participate in the fixing. The teammate refused, but Fok later recruited Silva da Silva and Mohammad, according to the anticorruption commission's statement.

Fok faced five charges, including three counts of offering an advantage to an agent under the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, while all three men were convicted on two counts each of...