For remuneration of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, retired women in the Mainland of sixty opened bank accounts in Hong Kong from 2011 to 2012 and lent their accounts to others to cleanse crimes, benefiting nearly 6 billion Hong Kong dollars. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder money and was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in high court this morning (26th). Police revealed that this is the third largest money laundering case in Hong Kong.
It was revealed in court that the 63-year-old defendant Zhang Jing had a high school education in the Mainland. She retired in 2006 and relied on pensions for her livelihood. She worked as a salesperson before retirement.
The case alleges that the defendant came to Hong Kong in February 2011 to open an account with the name of "Yishun Co., Ltd." in the Bank of China (Hong Kong). The authorization letter shows that Yishun is an import and export trading company, and the defendant is the only director of Yishun and is also The only signer of the account involved. However, the business registration records show that Yishun is a private company engaged in the trading of electronic parts, which is inconsistent with the account opening authorization letter. Yishun also closed in October 2012.
The police investigation found that from March 2011 to June 2012, the transaction of the account involved was active, and there were a number of characteristics consistent with the money laundering activity model, including a large transaction volume, and a total deposit account of about 5.97 billion Hong Kong dollars, more than 98% Deposits are deposited by transfer, and there are a lot of withdrawals directly after deposits are deposited. The defendant or Yishun has not filed taxes for many years.
In September 2018, the defendant was arrested when he came to Hong Kong again. Under caution, she claimed that her friend Chen Huiling, who had known her since childhood, asked her to help her open a bank account in Hong Kong for a friend. The other party promised to give her RMB 300 per month for each account. remuneration. The defendant stated that she would join a man in Mong Kok after coming to Hong Kong. The other party claimed to be Chen Huiling's friend and took her to the bank to open an account. The other party said that she would do the exchange business with the user account. After completing the account opening procedure, she put the passbook, password and ATM The cards and all were handed over to the other party. She met the man only once and she received the other party’s remuneration for 5 to 6 months.
However, the defendant later changed her statement, saying that she would meet the man again afterwards, and the other party signed her with a large number of documents and promised to pay her HK$2,000. The defendant alleges that the man later told her that something had happened to the company and that she would no longer be paid.
The judge sentenced that the defendant had no previous case in Hong Kong, no evidence that she was the main or core figure in the case, or that she knew the benefits of the indictable crimes involved behind her; she was not the person who operated the account of the case, and there was no evidence to show The case involved cross-border money laundering activities. Therefore, according to the case, starting from 10 years of imprisonment as the starting point for sentencing, the defendant pleaded guilty and received a one-third commutation, and sentenced her to 6 years and 8 months in prison.
Source: ON.CC
Translation: Google Translate
