Hong Kong police carried out a crackdown on money laundering groups, 14 arrested and HK$300 million seized.
Hong Kong police have arrested 14 people and frozen HK$70 million placed in banks accounts in a crackdown on money laundering gang that cleaned over HK$300 million of black money in less than two years. In addition to this, police insiders said on Thursday that the law enforcement officers are striving to trace the remaining HK$230 million, which is suspected to have been moved out from the city and probably placed into mainland Chinese bank accounts.
According to the source, arrested 11 men and three women including four suspected Sun Yee On Triad members were alleged as core authorities of the money-laundering gang.
However, the other 10 suspects were the bank accounts holders from illegitimate funds were laundered, said Sung Ka-wai, acting chief inspector of Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB).
Further, he also said that from investigation police came to know that the three women and seven men had been offered financial compensations between HK$500 to HK$5,000 upon opening corporate and personal bank accounts that were used by money laundering groups to clean and launder illicit money.
Sung Ka-wai said, one of the members of syndicate worked as a manager in the bank that assisted the suspects to open accounts with fake address details.
“The investigation reveals that between January 2020 and November 2021, the syndicate used more than 60 bank accounts to launder at least HK$300 million in criminal proceeds,” the acting chief inspector said.
He said the seized amount includes about HK$40 million that was used to carry out 24 fraud cases like phone, investment, and romance in the city as well as cross-border. However, after identifying the core members and bank account holders, Hong Kong police carried out raids across the city to arrest 14 people on suspicion of money laundering.
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