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Anti-Corruption Body Cracks Money Laundering Syndicate
Hong Kong's anti-corruption agency ICAC has arrested 39 people suspected of involving in a 50- billion-HK-dollar money laundering case, according to the latest report of the ICAC.
These people include members of a cross-boundary criminal syndicate and senior bank officers, said the report.
The ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption) believed that the syndicate has been in operation for at least five years and the amount of money laundered was estimated to be 50 billion HK dollars (6.4 billion U.S. dollars).
A senior manager, a manager and an officer of Po Sang Bank and five shareholders and directors of a local money-changer and nine of its staff are among the arrested.
Also netted in the Operation "Owl," started last Tuesday were five couriers, three money dealers and 14 others who held bank accounts for allegedly assisting in money laundering.
The ICAC had received a corruption complaint, alleging that a senior bank manager might have accepted bribes to facilitate money laundering activities.
Investigations revealed that the cross-boundary syndicate had been deploying couriers to smuggle huge sums of cash, including Renminbi, Hong Kong and other foreign currencies, out of Chinese Mainland into Hong Kong on a daily basis.
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