A pair of sisters who live in public housing units in Yau Tong involved using different identities such as clerks, insurance brokers, college students, and sales clerks to open multiple accounts in different local banks, and use virtual currency trading platforms to handle huge amounts of money from unknown sources.
The average monthly income of the two was only more than 10,000 yuan, but their bank account had a transaction amount of more than 380 million yuan in just 9 months, which aroused the suspicion of the customs.
After several months of in-depth investigations, the customs officer took action today (28th) to arrest the sister and brother on suspicion of money laundering.
The arrested brothers were 28 and 21 years old. Customs believed that the sister involved in the case was the first to engage in money laundering activities, and the younger brother was later involved.
Preliminary investigation revealed that between May 2019 and January 2020, the two brothers used personal accounts opened in different banks in Hong Kong, including traditional bank accounts and virtual bank accounts, and an account on a virtual currency trading platform. Bank transfers, cash deposits and cryptocurrencies, etc., processed a total of approximately 384 million yuan of unknown origin.
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The Senior Investigation Officer (Wealth Investigation Team) of the Customs Organized Crime Investigation Division, Yu Yiu-wing, described the case at a press conference. He said that at the beginning of this year, the customs identified the pair of local sisters based on intelligence analysis and suspected that the two were involved in money laundering activities.
After several months of in-depth investigations, customs officers have taken action today to search a unit in Gao Xiangyuan, Yau Tong, and arrest the sister and brother.
During the investigation, the customs found that the bank accounts of the two sisters involved were suspicious, one of which was that the account opening information reported different occupations.
Zhongjiajie is engaged in clerical work, but when opening the account she also reported to be an insurance broker and telecom salesperson, including the two accounts opened at different banks on the same day.
As for the younger brother, who is a local university student, he even opened accounts in 6 banks in Hong Kong, including 4 physical and 2 virtual banks, in the same day, respectively, and reported to work as retail practitioners, students, clerks and logistics staff, etc., and both opened accounts. The declared information and purpose aroused suspicion.
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In addition, the income of the two is extremely disproportionate to the large deposits of the bank. From May 2019 to January 2020, the sister and younger brother respectively reported that their monthly average income was about 12,000 yuan and about 15,000 yuan. The elder sister does not have a tax return record, and the younger brother only reported an income of only 1,400 yuan in one of the years, but the two bank accounts had a transaction amount of more than 380 million yuan in just six months.
Third, the two also have suspicious accounting patterns.
The customs found that the deposits of the two were from 380 different personal accounts, and the number of transactions by bank transfer reached 2,500, among which the deposit amount was more than 100 million yuan. Among them, the maximum number of transactions in a single day was 143, and the maximum amount was 300. Ten thousand yuan, personal account transfer deposits accounted for 30% of the total source of funds.
At the same time, the sources of funds for the two also include cash deposits. The customs found that some people used bank teller machines to deposit cash many times at midnight. The amount of each deposit was about 100,000 yuan per unit and specified two or more passes. These funds were deposited several times, with only a few minutes between them; a total of 617 cash deposits were made, involving approximately 31 million yuan.
Fifth, the two will use the virtual currency trading platform to conduct transactions.
The investigation found that the younger brother had a registered account on a virtual trading platform and had conducted a large number of unusual and huge transactions involving 38 million yuan.
The virtual currency involved is mainly a stable currency linked to the U.S. dollar. The main transaction method is to convert the virtual currency into U.S. dollars through the trading platform, then deposit it into the bank account under the brother’s name, and then transfer it to multiple individuals and companies. It is believed that the purpose of the account is to use the platform to receive virtual currency, and use its high concealment to help others deal with unidentified money, convert it into virtual currency, and then transfer the virtual currency into legal tender.
Another transaction method will also directly transfer these virtual currencies to other anonymous virtual currency e-wallets to hide the source and destination of funds and increase the difficulty of customs investigations.
The case is still under investigation. Customs is investigating the arrested person's background, the source of the money involved in the case, and the flow of funds. It does not rule out that more people will be arrested later.
The two arrested sisters are arranging bail pending investigation. The assets of the arrested persons totaling about 130,000 yuan have been immediately frozen. Customs will continue investigations in accordance with the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, and will apply to the court based on the findings of the investigations. Fully provide the proceeds and assets of the crime involved.
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