The District Court has jailed former Semtech International Holdings Chairman Derek Wong for 39 months in his absence for corruption offences over Semtech share placements. The court ordered the forfeiture of Wong's $700,000 bail money.

Wong, 39, was found guilty of two counts of offering an advantage to an agent. The court issued a warrant for his arrest as he did not turn up in court for the verdict on July 24.

The court heard that on July 7, 2004, there was a placement of 19 million Semtech shares with an exercise price of $1.3 each. American Express Bank purchased 6 million of the shares for sale to its clients. As a result, Semtech received $7.8 million.

On July 9, 2004, Wong paid former American Express Bank Senior Director Earnest Leung $400,000 as a reward for the bank's purchase of the Semtech shares.

Wong also paid a sum of money to former VC Brokerage Divisional Managing Director Yung Ka-tim for influencing an investment analyst at the brokerage to write a "buy" oriented review of Semtech shares to boost their value.