The billionaire brothers who run Hong Kong’s largest property company were arrested yesterday in connection with a corruption investigation that has stunned the territory’s tight-knit business community.

Raymond and Thomas Kwok, who took control of Sun Hung Kai Properties after their octogenarian mother retired last year, are the most prominent tycoons yet to be arrested by the city’s powerful Independent Commission Against Corruption. Rafael Hui, Hong Kong’s second highest-ranking official from 2005 to 2007, was also arrested in the same case, according to local media reports. Neither Mr Hui nor the Kwok brothers, whose family wealth exceeds $15bn according to Forbes magazine, have been charged.

The ICAC declined to comment on the investigation, saying only that “two senior executives of a listed company?.?.?.?and a former principal official of the Hong Kong government have been arrested for corruption”. A Sun Hung Kai executive director, Thomas Chan, was arrested by the ICAC last week, although he was also not charged.