(16 Feb 2024)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4478527
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hong Kong – 16 February 2024
1. Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department officials posing for media, holding boards showing links in the money laundering trail they followed
HEADLINE: Hong Kong cracks its biggest money laundering case
2. Pan of boards showing links in money laundering trail investigated by Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department
3. Pan of of items confiscated during investigation
ANNOTATION: Authorities said about 1.7 billion US dollars were involved in a transnational syndicate that transferred large sums from overseas to the city.
4. Pan of gems confiscated during investigation
ANNOTATION: Seven people have been arrested so far in connection with the case, which has an Indian connection, customs officials said.
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Suzette Ip, Head of Customs Financial Investigation Bureau, Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department:
“We found that a large amount of money came from India, as well as other overseas bank accounts. That’s why we contacted the other overseas law enforcement agencies. The Indian authorities exchanged intelligence with us, we found that certain bank transactions were actually connected with two companies that have been taken down by the Indian authorities, being suspected to launder crime proceeds in relation to online mobile application scam.”
++OVERLAID ON SOUNDBITE++
6. Media filming display of items confiscated during investigation
7. Cutaway media
8. Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department officials getting up at end of news conference
ANNOTATION: Hong Kong still has easy international banking and business regulations which make it possible to set up and operate without a lot of red tape.
STORYLINE:
Hong Kong customs officials have arrested seven people linked to the territory’s largest ever money laundering case, involving about 14 billion Hong Kong dollars ($1.8 billion) some of it linked to a scam case in India.
The seven local residents, aged between 23 and 74, were part of a large-scale transnational syndicate that used various shell companies and bank accounts to transfer large sums from overseas to the city under the guise of running international trading businesses, customs officials said Friday.
One account once received as much as 100 million Hong Kong dollars ($12.8 million) on a single day, they said.
Ip Tung-ching, the head of customs financial investigation bureau, said 2.9 billion Hong Kong dollars ($371 million) of the total was suspected to be linked to a scam case involving a mobile application in India. But she did not say which application it was.
Some of those arrested were non-Chinese residents of Hong Kong, she said without giving details.
Authorities believe the syndicate received remittances from India in name of exporting electronic devices, diamonds, gems and precious metals, Ip said. Proceeds were then transferred to bank accounts in Hong Kong for money laundering.
“These acts of money laundering provide protective umbrellas for the illegal profits of criminals,” she said.
Law enforcement in Hong Kong, India and elsewhere cooperated in carrying out the operation, enabling its success, Ip said.
Yu Yiu-wing, the bureau’s divisional commander, said officers exchanged intelligence with Indian authorities and found some of the money came from two jewelry companies that Indian authorities said were connected to the scam.
A 34-year-old Hong Kong resident arrested in late January is suspected to be the syndicate’s mastermind, she said.
The investigation was continuing.
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