A former head of J.P. Morgan Securities' Asia investment banking business employed the son of a logistics company chairman in 2010, even though the candidate had failed in the first round of interviews, prosecutors told a Hong Kong court on Monday.

Catherine Leung offered to hire Ang Ren-yi, the son of Kerry Logistics Network chairman Ang Keng-lam, in anticipation that the potential client would give the investment bank a role in its initial public offering, prosecutors told the District Court on the first day of her trial.

Leung, now 51, is facing two counts of bribery. She repeated a not guilty plea on Monday.

The alleged offence took place when executives at the investment bank were permitted to recommend sons and daughters of potential clients as hires under a referral program, prosecutors said.

On January 10, 2010, Leung told a J.P. Morgan Securities' corporate department head named Clayton in an email that Ang Ren-yi was very keen to join the bank. Ang Ren-yi was a graduate of Harvard University, spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese, but his GPA was 3.2, falling short of the 3.4 required by the bank. He had also failed in the first round of interviews, prosecutors told the court.

Leung suggested to her employer that they could not hesitate or other banks would offer Ang Ren-yi a job. She suggested to Clayton that his department could arrange another interview and then give him an offer under the referral program. She also said she would meet with Ang Keng-lam to discuss Kerry Logistics' listing plan, prosecutors alleged.

One week later, Leung was told in an email that the younger Ang would be hired. On Jan. 27, Ang was hired as a securities analyst, but the recruitment had not passed through the bank’s legal and compliance department, prosecutors said.

J.P. Morgan Securities did not participate in Kerry Logistics' IPO in December 2013. Even so, Leung showed an intention to commit a crime, prosecutors said.

Ang became a permanent staff member of J.P. Morgan Securities with a HK$540,000 (US$69,677) annual salary in June 2010. His pay increased to HK$640,000 in 2011 before he left the bank in October that year, the court heard.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

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