Man admits laundering HK$95m in four years
Chinese-Canadian used three different passports to open bank accounts
Thursday, 22 August, 2013, 3:52am
A Chinese-Canadian man admitted laundering more than HK$95 million over four years through bank accounts he had opened using three different passports.
Xie Jing-feng, also known as David Chow, 56, yesterday pleaded guilty in the District Court to one count of money laundering.
Prosecutor Leslie Parry told the court that Xie was born on the mainland. He entered Canada in 1997 as a refugee and was granted citizenship after five years. Xie and his wife, Zhu Li-chang, both hold Canadian passports.
Xie, who is not resident in Hong Kong, used a Canadian passport to open an integrated account at HSBC in June 2005, the court heard. The following year, he opened a savings account at Hang Seng Bank using a second Canadian passport that was also in his name but with a different number.
In May 2007, Xie produced a third Canadian passport to open two accounts at Standard Chartered Bank for his company, Civil Finance Limited. He stated that he was a director of the company.
Between June 2005 and April 2009, the court heard, Xie used the four accounts - along with five others that were held by his companies or wife - to launder more than HK$95 million.
No tax returns were submitted to the Inland Revenue Department by either Xie or his companies during this period.
Police began investigating Xie in 2008. He was jailed for eight months in November 2011 after being stopped at the mainland border for using a fake Malaysian passport. He pleaded guilty to the charge in Sha Tin Court.
After further investigation, Xie was arrested for money laundering when he was released from jail on April 30 last year. Judge David Dufton adjourned sentencing until today.
News source: SCMP 22 August 2013 - http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1298400/man-admits-laundering-hk95m-four-years
Police arrested 8 men attempted to rob foreign exchange company staff
HK Police ambushed and arrested 8 suspects for an attempt to rob two foreign exchange company staff on 13 September 2013. According to the news reports, the Police received intelligence that a gang of criminals was planning to rob the staff of a foreign exchange company. The Police arrested the 8 suspects when the gang attacked the two staff at around 8pm on a street in To Kwa Wan. The spokesman of the Police stated that this was an organized crime.
Laundering charge housewife 'had no idea about HK$13 million account'
Her personal accounts showed transactions amounting to HK$13 million, court told
Tuesday, 13 August, 2013, 9:04am
A housewife claimed that she had no idea why her personal bank account, which she used only for paying bills and school fees, showed transactions amounting to more than HK$13 million in four years, the District Court heard yesterday.
Kate Lai Yee-kum, 49, faces four counts of money laundering involving HK$12.99 million and £28,622 (HK$340,000) through four accounts between April 2006 and March 2010. Her husband, Shum Kin-wing, 51, was charged with three counts of laundering HK$14 million through two accounts over the same period.
Cheung Yiu-ting, 29, who is alleged to have deposited HK$400,000 into Shum's accounts in May 2008, faces one charge of money laundering.
All three deny the charges.
Prosecutor Susanna Ku Pui-fong told the court Shum and Lai ran a firm called Country Consultants and were the only shareholders and directors.
Country Consultants started business in 2006, and Shum and Lai declared incomes to the tax department of HK$130,000 and HK$120,000, respectively, in the first year. Between 2007 and 2009 the company reported it suffered losses.
But the firm's bank accounts and the couple's personal accounts showed multiple transactions. One of Shum's accounts showed 557 transactions, with deposits of more than HK$11.8 million and withdrawals of HK$11.67 million, Ku said.
Lai's personal account recorded more than 880 transactions, with deposits of HK$7.6 million and withdrawals of HK$7.5 million. The couple were arrested on October 11, 2011.
Under police caution, Lai said she used her two personal accounts to pay for family expenses and that her husband deposited money into her accounts from time to time, and that she had no idea about the transactions.
Lai's lawyer Wong Man-kit SC, told the court Lai was feeling unwell when she made the statement and was prevented from meeting her lawyer. He told the court the statement should be inadmissible.
The trial continues today.
News source: SCMP 13 August 2013 - http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1296204/laundering-charge-woman-claims-ignorance
Couple jailed five years for laundering HK$650m
A District Court judge yesterday jailed a couple who admitted laundering more than HK$650 million.
Tsoi Suet-ching, 46, and Wong On-hung, 45, pleaded guilty to three counts of money laundering and were jailed for five years and four months.
The pair - with Tsoi's mother Ngai Lan-fa, 69, Tsoi's younger brother, Tsoi Chit-tsang, 45, and his younger brother's wife, Shi Wenni, 38 - were charged on a total of seven counts involving HK$983 million believed to have been laundered over five years through to 2009.
Tsoi Chit-tsang absconded on July 21, five days after the trial opened. Tsoi Suet-ching and her husband then pleaded guilty to three of the charges that went against them.
Judge Kevin Browne said he believed the couple were neither the masterminds nor the major beneficiaries of the scheme.
However, he said they had played a significant role in the scam and that the amount of money involved was substantial.
The judge allowed the prosecution's application to confiscate HK$5.46 million from Tsoi Suet-ching and HK$3.87 million from Wong.
The couple were ordered to pay the sum to the government by February 14, 2014, or face four more years of imprisonment on top of their current jail terms.
The judge, acting on a prosecution request, left all charges against Tsoi's mother and Shi on file.
But he refused to adjourn Tsoi Chit-tsang's case and decided to continue the trial on August 26, in absentia if need be, because it would best serve the public interest. The judge said the case was of such an "extremely serious nature" that it could be heard in the Court of First Instance.
Tsoi Suet-ching and her husband admitted they had laundered the money - mostly Hong Kong dollars, but also US dollars and renminbi - through the bank accounts held their names and in the names of companies under their control.
Under caution, the couple told the police that they carried out transactions according to Tsoi Chit-tsang's instructions only.
Tsoi Suet-ching claimed she suspected the money might be linked to illegal activities, but did not ask her brother, who said the money was connected with his business.
News source: SCMP 17 Aug 2013 - http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1297297/couple-jailed-five-years-laundering-hk650m
Public housing tenant in money-laundering scam jailed for a decade
Lawmaker calls for tougher regulation of banks after 61-year-old woman is imprisoned for laundering HK$5m a day through city accounts
A public housing tenant who laundered more than HK$6.7 billion through nine Hong Kong banks over almost four years was jailed for 10 years yesterday.
The money-laundering case is the second-biggest since the conviction of mainlander Luo Juncheng in January for a HK$13 billion scam, which led to calls for the tighter regulation of banks.
Lam Mei-ling, 61, was found guilty in the Court of First Instance on Monday of laundering an average of HK$5 million a day between May 2002 and December 2005. She funnelled cash to various accounts in Hong Kong through more than 17,000 over-the-counter bank transfers, under the instruction of a mainland woman.
The banks shut down the accounts in 2005 without approaching the police, the court heard. There were no clues as to where the money had been sent.
Lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, a senior counsel, said the incident showed that the banking regulator should tighten rules.
Despite the conviction, "we have to question whether the banks have done their duty to prevent money-laundering", Tong said.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority should step up its effort to check if banks had systems in place to report suspicious transactions, and should be given the power to impose stiff fines if banks failed to improve anti-money-laundering measures, he added.
"Only a painful penalty such as a heavy fine would make sure the banks improved their internal controls. We have seen heavy fines for banks related to money-laundering cases overseas, but we have not see any penalties for banks in Hong Kong. This needs to change," Tong said.
We have seen heavy fines for banks related to money-laundering cases overseas, but we have not see any penalties for banks in Hong Kong. This needs to change
Lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah
HSBC agreed to pay a record US$1.92 billion in fines in December to settle a money-laundering and terrorist-financing investigation by US authorities.
In passing sentence on Lam yesterday, Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai accepted that she had not been the mastermind and did not know the nature of the crimes which had generated the money.
"But this case involved huge sums of money. It took place over a long period of time and involved as many as nine bank accounts," the judge said.
"For a serious crime like this, an individual's circumstances such as her family background and education level would not constitute mitigating factors."
Lam laundered amounts ranging from HK$2 billion through Chiyu Bank to HK$124 million through National Commercial Bank.
The larger sums included HK$1.8 billion transferred through Hua Chiao Commercial Bank and HK$1.6 billion through Hang Seng Bank.
The other banks were Dao Heng Bank, First Commercial Bank, Hua Nan Bank, Standard Chartered and Bank of East Asia.
In January, 22-year-old Luo Juncheng was jailed for 10 and a half years for transferring a record HK$13.1 billion in just eight months through an account held with the Chiyu Banking Corporation.
Concluding the case, Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping said there was an urgent need to review the maximum penalties for the offence, which were 14 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to HK$5 million