Hong Kong police have arrested 27 people in three separate operations on suspicion of laundering HK$310 million, including the proceeds from scam cases in Singapore and the United States.
Senior Superintendent Philip Lui Che-ho of the force’s financial intelligence and investigation bureau said on Wednesday that money-laundering syndicates were increasingly breaking up proceeds of crime to cover their tracks.
“Syndicates will use a few ways to evade discovery, including using cash and cryptocurrencies, as well as transferring criminal proceeds multiple times through various layers [of accounts] alongside operating across borders,” Lui said.
He also said lending or selling personal bank accounts for money laundering had become more widespread in recent years, with the number of people arrested surging from 4,465 in the first half of 2024 from 977 in the same period in 2021.
One operation, code-named “Blackbrain”, was launched earlier this month after Singaporean police alerted their Hong Kong counterparts in March about bank accounts in the city being used in around 30 scam cases in the Southeast Asian country. Around HK$30 million was transferred into local accounts.
Police investigations subsequently uncovered a syndicate whose mastermind would go with his accomplices to register new bank accounts to use for receiving criminal proceeds from Singapore.
Chief inspector Yip Chun-man from the bureau said the syndicate laundered an estimated HK$100 million over the past year.
Officers also discovered suspicious transactions of US$120,000 (HK$935,955) from the US in one account held by the syndicate. Yip said the transfer came from a victim of an investment scam in the United States.
“We immediately alerted Interpol and the Singaporean police. We later discovered that one of the transactions came from a victim of an investment scam in the United States,” Yip said.
The chief inspector said the force had arrested the alleged mastermind, a number of core members and seven stooge account holders in an operation this month, seizing cash worth HK$300,000 and 60 bank cards in the process.
Five suspects have been charged with money laundering.
Another syndicate broken up this month allegedly laundered more than HK$13 million from an illegal online gambling platform that operated in Southeast Asia between May and July this year.
Police said the syndicate first came to their attention in May, with seven stooge accounts identified.
Yip said officers arrested seven men and two women, aged between 19 and 38, on Tuesday and Wednesday. The nine suspects were carrying HK$490,000 in cash, 37 phones and 120 bank cards.
All nine people remained in custody as of Wednesday, with investigations continuing.
Police also arrested 11 people in an operation code-named “Smalltune” last week and broke up a local syndicate which had been running since last year.
The group is suspected to have collected HK$20 million of scam proceeds from March 2023 to May this year using 43 local bank accounts, as well as having laundered HK$200 million.
“To evade police investigations, this syndicate utilised a large number of bank accounts for fund transfers, withdrawing criminal proceeds as cash multiple times and purchasing cryptocurrencies on local platforms,” Yip said.
The 11 suspects, including the alleged mastermind, core members and stooge account holders, were aged between 21 to 55, and included insurance agents, salesmen, drivers and construction workers.
Officers confiscated HK$460,000 of cash as well as phones and bank cards belonging to the arrested.
