Owners of Hong Kong’s Physical could avoid criminal liability by relying on new investors: lawyers

The owners, who are also directors of the scandal-hit chain, could defend themselves against possible allegations of accepting last-minute payments for new contracts by proving they tried to secure financial support for their troubled company said sources and lawyers.

Two lawyers pointed to a Sept. 7 notice on Physical Fitness and Beauty’s website in which the company said it had found a new, unnamed investor to reopen its Wan Chai store under the “Healthy” brand name offering free sessions to former Physical clients would provide unused services with “coordination” from Physical.

“It is enough for the defendants to produce the notice and rely on it [the defence]because the dealer only has to “offer the procurement,” said Kenix Yuen Pui-kwan, a commercial litigation expert and partner at law firm Lewis Silkin.

“But if [the new investment] Since the closure of the gym was not caused by Physical, it would not fall under this defense.”

Just days after the decades-old fitness chain announced its closure, customs officials arrested owners Luk Ngai-keung, 67, and his wife Ho Yuk-wah, 68, on Sept. 11 for allegedly not intending to provide services, after accepting payments from customers – A crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of HK$500,000 (US$64,400).