2016 as he was boarding a ferry to Hong Kong, and was charged with 1,536 counts of a criminal nature – the largest number of charges in Macau's history. Alleged crimes included initiating or founding a criminal syndicate, forgery, fraud and money laundering. Ho allegedly conspired to award and personally benefit from some 2,000 public contracts worth more than 167 million patacas (US$20 million) between 2004 and 2014. Ho and nine co-defendants were estimated to have pocketing at least 44 million patacas (US$5.3 million). Ho is said to have conspired with relatives to set up 10 shell companies, which were then used to obtain outsourcing contracts from the prosecutor's office. During the trial, his driver Mak Hak Neng admitted in court to having transported bags of cash – from 100 to 300,000 patacas each time – on Ho's behalf and deposited in an individual bank account in Zhuhai under Ho's name. Ho was found guilty of the city's top court, and sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment on 14 July 2017 with no right to appeal. He has been ordered to pay more than 18 million patacas to the prosecutor general's office of which he was once head. Separately, he and co-defendants have to pay more than 50 million patacas to the office that had been defrauded. See also Ao Man Long Commission Against Corruption (Macau) Corruption in China References Information on the major officials and the Procurator-General of the MSAR 1955 births Living people Government of Macau Macau people Chinese prosecutors University of Macau alumni Southwest University of Political Science & Law alumni Peking University alumni University of Coimbra alumni