HONG KONG, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Hong Kong's billionaire Tse Sui- luen, founder and ex-chairman of the Tse Sui Luen Jewelry empire, was sentenced to three years and three months in jail on Friday for offering illegal kickbacks to travel agents.

    Tommy Tse, son of Tse Sui-luen and chairman of the Tse Sui Luen Jewelry Company Limited, got 5 years in jail, while three other senior managers of the company also got jail terms ranging from three years and nine months to four years and three months.

    After a court hearing lasting over 100 days, the defendants were found guilty of 8 offenses in April, including conspiracy to offer illegal advantages, false accounting, theft and defrauding tax authorities of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

    Judge Kevin Browne said the jail terms were meted out because the offenses the defendants had committed "were serious and lasted a lengthy period of time."

    Tse Sui-luen, 72, and Tommy Tse, 40, together with the other three defendants, had been in custody since late April, when they handed the guilty verdict.

    Tse Sui-luen had a typical rags to riches story by starting as a ragman's kid but later established his jewelry empire thanks to his hard work He was once worth 2 billion HK dollars but the company faced financial difficulties in recent years.

    Tse Sui Luen Jewelry Company Limited (TSL), which was directly involved in the case, is a subsidiary of the listed Tse Sui Luen Jewelry (International) Limited.

    The court heard a scheme codenamed "the James Bond Project" had seen the company offer about 170 million Hong Kong dollars (21.79 million U.S. dollars) in illegal kickbacks to travel agents for bringing customers to company showrooms.

    The payments were made between 1996 and 2005 through offshore companies set up to channel the money out of Hong Kong before remitting it to local travel agents.

    The judge said that evidences showed the Tses were aware of the scheme and that Tommy Tse had implemented the project with conspiracy or assistance from the others.

    Tommy Tse, company chairman since 2001, and his deputy Peter Gerardus Van Weerenburg attempted to defraud the Inland Revenue Department by making false representations during its investigations into the company's commission payments in 2002.

    "Lies had become the corporate policy," Judge Browne said in the verdict.

    The Tses were also found to have conspired with others to steal half a million HK dollars (64,103 U.S. dollars) and 2.71 million HK dollars (0.35 million U.S. dollars), respectively, from the company between February and December 2002 for their own use.

    Tommy Tse returned 1.82 million HK dollars (0.23 million U.S. dollars) to TSL via his lawyer on January 8, 2003, a month after the theft came to light.

    Many celebrities, including Kung Fu star Jackie Chan, and employees at the Tse Sui Luen Jewelry Company Limited, called for leniency on the Tses.

    A lawyer for the defendants said they were still considering whether to appeal.