HONG KONG WATCHDOGS ARREST CULPRITS FOR MONEY LAUNDERING
ANDREW SMITH, 15 July 2021
Intro: Four men and a mastermind running a money-laundering syndicate in the city have been arrested by the Hong Kong Police. The officials have dismantled the operation of the gang that used cryptocurrency to process HK$1.2 billion for illegal funds.
Four men along with the local mastermind of the money laundering syndicate have been arrested by the Hong Kong Police. The customs officials have confirmed that they had dismantled the money laundering syndicate that used cryptocurrency to process HK$1.2 billion ($155 million) in illegal funds.
It is one of the first successful operations to have been done by the police. Mark Woo Wai-Kwan, Senior Superintendent of Police has said that it is the first time that the police have arrested the money-laundering ring which was using cryptocurrency to wash dirty cash and conceal the source of criminal assets was broken up.
AUTHORITIES ON STRICT VIGIL
The four men along with the local who had been arrested for the crime are now on bail while HK $20million had been frozen by the authorities. as per the investigators, the perpetrators had opened various fake bank accounts with shell companies.
The perpetrators had run many transactions through digital currency exchange platforms. This was done to change cryptocurrency into real cash for clients. The authorities have informed that nearly 60 percent of the funds had been channelled via bank accounts in Singapore in the last 15 months.
