Big sums laundered for 'tiny profits'

2014-11-15

■While sentencing a 70-year-old man yesterday for laundering HK$2.2 billion over three months, a High Court judge said the man had engaged in a serious crime dealing with huge amounts of money in exchange for "tiny profits".

While sentencing a 70-year-old man yesterday for laundering HK$2.2 billion over three months, a High Court judge said the man had engaged in a serious crime dealing with huge amounts of money in exchange for "tiny profits" of HK$3,500 a month.

The defendant, Wong Lan-chun, and his cousin Chan Tsz-yin, 53, received prison sentences of three years and nine months, and five years and four months, respectively, for three counts of knowingly dealing in ill-gotten gains. The pair had earlier pleaded guilty.

Court of First Instance judge Mr Justice Andrew Chan Hing-wai, who delivered the sentences, said that while Chan masterminded the case, Wong "committed the offences for tiny profits".

Wong received more leniency than the normal one-third sentence reduction for a guilty plea, as he had agreed to testify as a witness against Chan. But that wasn't necessary.

The court heard earlier that Chan, a remittance agent, had been unable to open his own bank accounts and asked Wong to start a company and open the accounts.

Wong registered a garment-trading company, Shun Fat, and opened three accounts with Bank of China (Hong Kong), through which the money was laundered from January 1 to March 3, 2010.

Chan admitted to police under caution that a "boss" on the mainland would pay the cousins HK$7,000 per month for operating the remittance business. Chan claimed to have no knowledge of the funds' depositors and sources of money, saying all transactions were ordered by the boss.

The identity of the "boss" was not revealed in court.

Yesterday, Andrew Chan pointed out that the offences involved a huge sum, and lots of cross-country fund transfers.

In the last hearing, the judge ordered police to investigate why banks refused to open accounts for Chan.

Prosecutor Susanna Ku Pui-fong said yesterday that banks denied Chan's requests citing "administrative polices".

The court did not hear which banks had denied Chan.

The court will have a hearing on confiscation orders made against the pair involving HK$17.6 million on January 12.

Source: South China Morning Post