Breaking news reports that seven current and former members who work for unnamed banks in Hong Kong have been arrested for laundering up to $ 810 million in four years.
This is not the first time scandalous circumstances surrounding shady banking deals have made headlines in this area. Phil Ming Xu was arrested back in 2015 for financial crimes in which dirty money was transferred to HSBC’s Hong Kong bank accounts.
This scam has been dubbed WCM777 and the main players have mistakenly transferred millions of investor funds to private accounts reserved for investments in cloud computing services. This Ponzi program was brought to light by a group of investigative journalists seeking justice for victims of financial crime, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The same group was responsible for pegging the seven guilty members accused of money laundering inside based on years of leaked documents from informants.
What was brought to light?
The following financial misdeeds were made public when Hong Kong police raided five companies involved and seven bank staff homes that were involved in money laundering last Wednesday, January 19.
One of the culprits will have a hard time feigning ignorance and innocence when it comes to the day in court after police found an exorbitant $ 7.8 million in cash in their home. The Superintendent of the Bureau of Economic Crime, Yip Wing-lam, stated in this press release, “It is the biggest case we have blown in recent years.”
It was also the first time local bank employees were involved in a federal crime as far-reaching as money laundering, organized by an international syndicate of money-hungry modern gangsters. The sentence for this offense is 14 years in prison and a heavy fine of five million dollars.
Hong Kong is an international epicenter promoting the myriad benefits of a free economy.
A free economy, however, is synonymous with lax regulations that attract criminal minds who want to use a system that is easier to manipulate with less government reach. This is why so many Shell companies and laundry operations are in a market with minimal regulatory and safety programs to alert higher-level companies to financial disagreements and fraudulent activity.
Because of these under-regulated markets, the perpetrators were able to set up 14 business accounts with more than $ 810 million in illegal cash between 2017 and 2018.
The bureau currently investigating the case found that the seven members arrested for illegally laundering money helped a member of the international syndicate involved in the theft of that money fill in loopholes when applying for legitimate-looking business accounts to find.
A total of 16 people were involved in this international syndicate, either living in mainland China or Belgium. The local bankers helped falsify false corporate documents and helped train future applicants involved in the scam how to master opening new business accounts to work through even more dirty money. This fact underscores the complicity of the local bankers in relation to these crimes. After these illicit funds were recaptured by the government, they found direct links to accounts in Italy, Germany and Vietnam.
All we know so far about the specific details of the people and institutions directly involved in this case is what the latest reports from the public police tell us. The culprits are five men and two women, all in their early to mid-30s, who work for unknown banks in Hong Kong.
I am sure the case will continue to develop in the coming weeks once the authorities have completed a thorough investigation. There is no point in publicly visiting people and places before a fair trial.
