Sew Hoy pleaded guilty in the High Court at Dunedin yesterday to one charge of making a secret payment to former board employee and convicted fraud Michael Swann as an inducement for favourable treatment in relation to services to be provided to the board.
The Crown says the payment was essentially "a kickback", amounting to more than $100,000 a year, for increased amounts of ODHB information technology help-desk work.
Sew Hoy's company Innovative Systems Ltd had conducted business with the board before Swann was employed in 1998 to manage the board's IT functions.
After 1998, the amount of work directed to the company increased significantly, the Crown says.
Following the guilty plea, defence counsel David Jones, QC, of Auckland asked that Sew Hoy remain on bail until sentencing.
He said the Crown accepted home detention would be appropriate, so bail should be granted.
Crown counsel Robin Bates agreed the Crown had no problem about bail.
He told Justice John Fogarty the Crown also agreed home detention was "a consideration".
The maximum sentence of two years' jail for the offence means home detention is an option.
Justice Fogarty convicted Sew Hoy and remanded him to November 19 for sentence.
Sew Hoy's wife, Sue, was among a group of about eight family members at yesterday's court appearance but had no comment after her husband's guilty plea.
During a depositions hearing in November 2007, Swann and Sew Hoy were said to have been friends since childhood.
Sew Hoy was born in 1960 and, along with Swann, attended John McGlashan High School.
Company Office records show Sew Hoy is a director and principal shareholder of Elmo NZ Ltd.
He is also a director and, with other family members, a shareholder of importing company Primaton Holdings Ltd.
Sew Hoy is the grandson of the late Hugh Sew Hoy OBE who, when he died in 1996, aged 95, was described as one of the country's leading Chinese citizens in business and the community.
The elder Sew Hoy arrived in Dunedin from China in 1920, and with sons Justin, Duncan and Donald formed the Sew Hoy and Sons clothing business in 1958 which went on to employ 600 staff before going out of business in 1989.
Sew Hoy is the son of Duncan Sew Hoy and is a great-great-grandson of Choie Sew Hoy, who established the family in Otago in 1869.
At the Sew Hoys' 140th anniversary reunion, the family was described as being "as close as you come to a dynasty in New Zealand".
A two-term president of the Otago Table Tennis Association, Sew Hoy is on the committee and still plays.
Association secretary Bob Hurr said Sew Hoy had been involved in the sport since the early 1980s and had been assiduous in his care of association funds.
Sew Hoy would "strongly voice" his opinion on how funds were spent so they were safe and not "frittered away".
"He sort of leads people in the right direction on how to spend the money, how to use it and how to make it work for us.
"He's really managed our funds well.
"It's just come as a shock to believe he's done something . . ."
Mr Hurr said Sew Hoy was very generous with his time and was a good organiser.
"He'd do anything for you . . . bend over backwards to help you.
"He really was a great asset to the association."
Sew Hoy is listed as a member of the sport subcommittee of the Dunedin Shanghai Sister City Association and led a six-member table tennis group to Shanghai in 2003 to find out why the Chinese were so successful at the sport.
The group received "royal treatment" as guests of Shanghai, with accommodation, meals and transport provided at no cost.
Sew Hoy told the Otago Daily Times on his return he was beaten by a 10-year-old Chinese player barely tall enough to see over the table.
"They were so good, so fast and skilful.
"I didn't stand a chance."
