Ex-sales manager jailed for laundering HK$3.4m cash from crime

A former sales manager of Logojets, a gift trading company, has been sentenced to four years of imprisonment at the District Court today for laundering over HK$3.4 million in crime proceeds in relation to 50 false production orders.

Leong Kim-iong, 46, was earlier found guilty of two charges of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offense, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Leong, who was responsible for sourcing gift orders from clients and placing production orders with suppliers, submitted 50 production orders to Logojets applying for advance payments of 2.77 million yuan (over HK$3.4 million) payable to two suppliers in the mainland, the court heard.

In believing that the applications were genuine, the gift trading company approved them and remitted the amount into the designated accounts of the two mainland suppliers held by two representatives of a licensed remittance agency in Hong Kong. The representatives of the remittance agency then arranged for the transfer of the corresponding sum of Hong Kong dollars from their bank accounts to the defendant's bank accounts in Hong Kong.

Between November 23, 2012 and November 26, 2014, over HK$3.1 million and more than HK$310,000, were paid into the defendant's bank accounts in Hong Kong, ICAC said.

Judge Fred Sham Siu-man said the court had to mete out an immediate custodial sentence in view of the seriousness of the offenses, which constituted a serious breach of trust. He also reprimanded Leong for showing no remorse and distorting the truth in mitigation.

The case arose from a corruption complaint.

Source: thestandard