On June 4th, 1997, Hong Kong newspaper tycoon Ms Sally Aw Sian was interviewed by officials of the Hong Kong anti-corruption commission. The publisher, a powerful figure in the British colony, acknowledged that she had given her staff the go-ahead for plans to inflate circulation figures of the English-language Hong Kong Standard by printing more newspapers.
"It was just as simple as that," she said. "This was a commercial decision, that is to get more advertisers."
But it was not as simple as that. The scheme involved deception of the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The managers created a company called Mornstar to buy up and dump 14 million copies of the newspaper.
And there was nothing simple about the legal process which resulted in three managers from the Standard being sent to jail this week for terms ranging from four to six months.
Ms Aw was not brought to court, although the original charges cited her as a co-conspirator. The decision not to prosecute such an influential figure has raised questions about the independence of the much-vaunted legal system which the colonial government left intact in Hong Kong.
As owner of the Sing Tao group of newspapers, the publisher is a member of the elite circle of tycoons, many sympathetic to China, which dominates Hong Kong society. Mr Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive and former shipping magnate, acted as a director of the parent company.
When the Secretary of Justice, Ms Elsie Leung, decided last March not to prosecute Ms Aw, even though she was initially named in the charges, pro-democracy politicians were quick to smell a rat. They pointed out that Ms Aw enjoyed good relations with the Chinese government and is a member of the pro-Beijing advisory body known as the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Her critics point to reports, particularly one in Next magazine, that before the handover she had berated executives about an editorial critical of human rights abuses in China.
The justice department has so far failed to explain why she was not charged. Mr Paul Harris, a pro-democracy barrister, said it was incredible that Ms Aw had not known what was going on in her company; "there is a widespread suspicion this decision was taken because of her position".
The Hong Kong Bar Association chairman, Mr Ronny Tong, said: "An explanation is needed to allay the suspicion or fears of people as to whether everyone is equal before the law."
A transcript leaked from the Independent Commission Against Corruption, published yesterday by the South China Morning Post, shows that while Ms Aw acknowledged giving permission for printing extra copies of the Standard, she denied being involved in the fraud.
The Justice Secretary has asked for time to consider the 40-page judgment of the court, issued on Wednesday, before commenting on the government's decision not to prosecute the Sing Tao chairwoman.
The anti-corruption watchdog began an investigation in 1997 after receiving allegations that the Standard had been printing up to 23,000 copies a day and selling them off as waste to "deceive a British-based circulation audit company and local advertising clients of both newspapers".
Ironically the verdict of the court, which sentenced Hong Kong Standard general manager Henrietta So to six months' imprisonment and two other executives to four months each for "deliberately and consistently misleading the public", comes in the same week that the Standard achieved a breakthrough in the advertising market. Nevertheless, the court case has meant a restructuring of the Standard executive team and cast a shadow over a $14 million sale of shares in the company owned by Ms Aw. Two investment funds, China Enterprise Development Fund and the Investment Co of China, both listed in Dublin, are buying a combined 23 per cent from Ms Aw. Conditions for the completion of the deal must be met by Tuesday with the purchase due to be completed two weeks later.