Charmaine Sheh written statement at Stephen Chan corruption case hearing

[The Sun 08/07/2011]

TVB artistes who are involved in TVB General Manager, Stephen Chan's corruption case finally appeared in court yesterday. After TV King Wayne Lai testified, the court announced there is no need to interrogate the 5 other victimized TVB actress, hence does not require them to appear in court. The court spent half an hour reading out their written statement. Not only did they reveal the appearance fees of the actresses, they also exposed that the artistes attended Stephen Chan's book signing event for free due to his request. Charmaine Sheh indicates that she wouldn't have attended the event if Stephen did not request her to do so.

According to Charmaine's statement, she charges a minimum of HKD40,000 per event and it will be much higher if it requires her to sing or do catwalk. However, the price can be reduced for charity or publicity event. Charmaine revealed that January last year, her manager informed her that she have to attend Stephen book signing event, without any fees. Though she was filming [Can’t Buy Me Love] back then, "I was informed that Stephen asked producer Mui Siu Ching to adjust the schedule. Because Stephen personally requested, she (Mui) must release me, and there will be no fees."

Charmaine did attend the event as per arranged. However, she only found out that the event has sponsors after receiving watch and diamond as gifts. She frankly state that due to no fees, she does not wish to attend the event. However, she could not refuse due to Stephen's request. "If it weren't for Stephen Chan's request, I would not have attended the event."

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Sehseh: In my opinion, Stephen Chan did abused his position as TVB General Manager to make the artistes appear in events for free, while his 'partner' Ed pocketed the sponsors' fees through the so-called 3rd party event agency. I'm sure that you would have encountered similar situation when your boss requested for you to attend social events/dinner and you could not decline, in fear of affecting your career. In this case, Stephen went as far as pressuring Mui Siu Ching to let Charmaine go, besides calling Charmaine and using his 'friendship' card.