Customs smash $880 million launderers

Customs officers have crippled a money-laundering syndicate that made a suspicious remittance of HK$880 million through a money service operator and an offshore company.

Three men and one woman aged between 42 and 61 were arrested last Wednesday for conspiring to money launder and breaching the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance - which bans handling money from suspected criminal activity. All were released on bail.

In an operation codenamed "Wind Catch 2020," the four - three locals and a foreigner - were arrested after a raid on four residential apartments in Sau Mau Ping, North Point, Shau Kei Wan and Tai Po; a money service operator in Wan Chai and a company in Central.

Three are the director, manager and associate of the money service operator and the remaining is the director of a company registered in Seychelles.

The money service operator's HK$16 million bank balance was frozen and its license suspended.

Head of financial investigation group Grace Tang Wai-ngan said one customer carried out 20 remittance transactions involving over HK$100 million in less than a month.

The department's intelligence showed an unusually large number of high-value remittance transactions, each involving over HK$120,000.

She said the operator deliberately did not carry out customer due diligence checks over the remittance transactions.

"The customers could not even provide complete ID documents and company information," she said.

Some of the shell corporations quickly shuttered following the remittance transactions, she said.

The remittances were made to different locations overseas, including investment companies, online gambling websites and casinos.

The manager of the money service operator allegedly conspired with the offshore company for massive money laundering purposes and violated the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, said deputy head of Customs' Money Service Supervision Bureau Shirley Kwok Chui-wah.

erin chan