Banned from entering Canada and Australia, the newly elected president of the world basketball federation has offered US$1 million to anyone who can prove he is a crook

By Asian Pacific News Service

A Hong Kong sports leader, who is said to be closely connected to the arms trade and the Chinese mafia, has been made the president of the International Basketball Federation.

Businessman Carl Ching Men-ky got the top job at the International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, in a vote last week in the Midwestern US city of Indianapolis which was attended by representatives from almost 100 countries.

FIBA is the 70 year old governing body of international basketball and held its 17th World Congress in conjunction with the World Basketball Championships that also began last week in Indianapolis.

Ching, who has headed the Asian Basketball Confederation since 1976, was the only candidate for the post and replaces Abdoulaye Seye Moreau for a four-year term of office. He had previously been vice- president of the Geneva-based FIBA. A Canadian basketball official who asked not to be named said he is alarmed at the alleged underworld connections of Ching.

"This could be very embarrassing for international basketball especially in the wake of the organized crime scandal that has hit the Olympic movement."

Florian Wanninger, a spokesman for FIBA in a telephone interview with The Asian Pacific Post from Indianapolis said his association stands by the new president.

"He does not have a criminal record," said Wanninger, when asked if FIBA was aware of the allegations levelled against Ching.

Wanninger said anyone with a criminal record cannot hold office in FIBA.

When asked how Ching was going to enter Canada or Australia if his work as FIBA president required him to do so, Wanninger replied that the governments of the two countries have to explain why they will not let him in.

"He just got a 10 year visa for the United States," said Wanninger, refusing to answer further questions.

Ching was banned from entering the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

Australia cited national security reasons for not allowing Ching a visa. He was then also the Asian Basketball Federation boss.

Australian police records seen by The Asian Pacific Post show that Ching was investigated as a target in a A$2 million (C$1.7 million) money laundering operation in 1988.

He was also tracked and videotaped in a Sydney hotel room where a heroin deal was being discussed. Canada, which has also banned Ching from entering the country, has an extensive intelligence file on him, say police officers working in the field of Asian Organized Crime.

According to the author of one of the reports on Ching, the information was supplied by Hong Kong Police, Interpol, and the criminal intelligence services of Australia and Canada.

"This guy is well known...he does not have a criminal record but he has got extensive criminal connections," said the Canadian author of the report, who asked not to be named.

The secret police report on Ching done by Canadian police alleges that the sports leader is "linked" to triads (Chinese mafia) in Hong Kong, New York, Macau, Toronto and Vancouver.

The secret report, with Canadian immigration file number B0124-28441/M00042, was obtained byThe Asian Pacific Post.

It states Ching is linked to a Hong Kong businessman called Heung Wa Wing who is the brother of Heung Wah Yim - a top leader of the notorious Sun Yee Onn Triad. Ching is said to also have connections with Luen Triad in Macau, the Kung Lok gang and the Red Eagles which have members in Vancouver and Toronto.

The report prepared in the mid 90's when Ching tried to emigrate to Canada, lists the infamous Eddy Chan, who is described as 'the Godfather of Oriental Youth Gangs' in New York, as a business partner of Ching.

Eddy Chan is alleged to have been involved in drug smuggling, money-laundering and contract killings. Ching is also said to have had strong connections to Hong Kong's five dragons - a set of corrupt police officers who fled the former British Colony for Vancouver and Taiwan.

Immigration Canada sources said Ching, 62, a wealthy Hong Kong-based businessman, is currently listed on Immigration Canada's "lookout" list to prevent him from entering the country based on the intelligence gathered on his activities.

The Immigration Canada computer entry states Ching has unsuccessfully applied for three ministerial permits from three different immigration ministers to enter Canada after being denied visas and landed-immigrant status.

The last time Ching was recorded trying to enter Canada was in August 1994.

He was denied a visa to attend the World Basketball Championships in Toronto by then-immigration minister Sergio Marchi for "unspecified security reasons." At that time Ching said he felt betrayed by the Canadian refusal to give him a visa because he was instrumental in helping Toronto host the championships after being wooed by many prominent Canadians including former prime minister Brian Mulroney. Prior to that, Immigration Canada has recorded him being in Toronto and Vancouver at least 20 times since 1976 where he had commodity trading interests.

When Ching originally applied to come to Canada in the early nineties, he was turned down because his son was medically inadmissable.

To go around this issue, he had his son adopted by his brother, states an Immigration document. Ching the document also states is involved in Mafia activities in the Dominician Republic and arms sales between China, the Middle East and the Irish Republican Army.

When Ching was barred from entering Australia for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, he angrily denounced media reports hinting at alleged connections with triads. "I have never done anything wrong in my life,"

He blamed the Canadian intelligence reports on his alleged mob ties as the reason for Australia's refusal to grant him a visa for the Olympics. Ching has admitted knowing some of the people mentioned as his associates, including the brother of a notorious Triad leader and Eddy Chan in New York. But he has denied knowing their alleged backgrounds.

Ching in an interview after being refused entry into Australia said Eddy Chan invested with him in the United Oriental Bank in New York where he was a director.

Ching said he also used Eddy Chan as a reference for his application to emigrate to Canada in the early 80s but has no business dealings with him any more. He believes that the reason he is being barred from entering Canada stems from a fee dispute with his former Canadian lawyer Ron Atkey, who later went on to be Canada's immigration minister. Atkey denies Ching's claim.

Ching had retained Atkey to help him emigrate to Canada but the application was turned down because one of his sons was declared inadmissable on medical grounds.

He believes the "fee dispute" may have led to Atkey having him barred after he became the chair of the Canadian Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which is the civilian watchdog that oversees Canada's spy agency"CSIS.

Ching has also said that Atkey was his business partner in a commodities trading business before they had a falling out. Atkey has described the claims as nonsense and that he was never Ching's business partner. "I had introduced him to a futures trading company but was never a director in the company," he said in an earlier interview from his law office in Toronto.

Ching and other Asian tycoons were among the people studied in the project which also looked at an alliance between the Beijing government and its espionage services and Chinese criminal gangs.

The study concluded that the ultimate objectives of the alliance included winning influence with Canadian politicians, stealing high-tech secrets, laundering money and gaining control of Canadian firms in real estate, media and other sectors.

A similar study done by a joint task force in the United States and headed by the National Security Agency (NSA) also looked at Ching's connections. Ching has offered US$1 million to anyone who can prove the allegations made in the security reports on him .