HONG KONG — The former father-in-law of slain Hong Kong socialite Abby Choi Tin-fung was listed as the owner of a government-subsidised flat worth more than HK$2 million (SGD$343,684) just months after a luxury property was bought under his name in 2019, the Post has found.

Kwong Kau, 65, and his two sons — one of them being Choi’s ex-husband Alex Kwong Kong-chi — were charged over the murder of the former model, parts of whose body were found in a ground-floor flat of a three-storey house in Tai Po’s Lung Mei Tsuen on February 21.

Kwong Kau’s wife, 63-year-old Jenny Li Sui-heung, meanwhile, faces a charge of perverting the course of justice for allegedly destroying evidence during a police investigation on Feb 23.

All four family members were remanded in custody after appearing in court on Monday (Feb 27). The next hearing will be on May 8.

A closer look into the father’s properties found the 65-year-old owned a 291 sq ft subsidised flat at Sheung Man Court in Kwai Chung.

The flat was bought for about HK$2.2 million in July 2020. He is the first and sole owner of the unit.

Kwong Kau, a former police officer, is also the sole owner of a property located in the exclusive Kadoorie Hill neighbourhood in Ho Man Tin. The 1,820 sq ft flat in the Kadooria housing complex was bought for about HK$73 million, including a HK$3 million stamp duty fee.

The transaction took place in October 2019 and was registered the following month, around the time the batch of subsidised flats that included those in Sheung Man Court were released for public purchase.

Completed in 2020, the government-subsidised housing estate is part of the city’s Home Ownership Scheme. The property opened for application in late May 2019 and applicants selected from a lottery were allowed to buy flats in November that year.

Currently only Hong Kong families with a maximum gross monthly income of HK$66,000 and assets of HK$1.85 million or less, or one-person households earning half the monthly amount, are eligible to purchase properties under the scheme. Families and individuals who qualify are eligible to buy both new or used flats without paying a premium.

A fifth suspect, believed to be Kwong Kau’s lover, was earlier arrested and accused of helping the former police officer to rent the ground-floor flat of the village house where the remains of Choi were discovered.

The woman surnamed Ng, who works as a masseuse and had been in a relationship with him for about six months, was also suspected of renting a luxury flat in Kowloon where Choi’s ex-husband hid before being arrested.

A check by the Post found that the roughly 395 sq ft flat could have cost around HK$24,000 a month in rent.

The death of socialite Choi has attracted worldwide media attention.

Almost a week after the model was reported missing, police continue to search for the remains of her corpse. The force on Sunday discovered a skull and several ribs believed to belong to the victim inside a large soup pot at the Tai Po village flat.

A police source on Monday said more than 100 officers would search a landfill in the New Territories after security camera footage allegedly showed a suspect moving bags from the flat where parts of Choi’s body were found to a nearby refuse collection area.

The massive operation was ordered after a review of security camera footage near the crime scene. SCMP