Man jailed for conspiracy to commit money laundering revealed in ICAC probe into impersonation phone scam
2023-3-9
Following the receipt of a complaint alleging impersonation of ICAC officers in phone scams, the Commission concluded an investigation and revealed that a man was suspected to have received a few hundred RMB for visiting Hong Kong to open a bank account, which was subsequently operated by others to handle payments in phone scams. The man, charged by the ICAC earlier, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering at the Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts today (March 9).
Huang Jianli, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deal with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to Section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.
In sentencing, Acting Principal Magistrate Peony Wong Nga-yan said the case involved extraterritorial element despite the period of defendant’s criminal involvement was not long and the amount of crime proceeds was not the highest among same nature of cases. Having considered the defendant’s guilty plea, his jail term was reduced to four months from a starting point of six months’ imprisonment.
The court heard that between 2018 and February 2019, the defendant conspired with others to handle four sums of Hong Kong dollar, Singaporean dollar and United States dollar, totalling about HK$180,000, in his bank account at Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK).
The investigation arose from a complaint filed with the ICAC alleging impersonation of the Commission’s officers in phone scams. It was revealed that in 2018, the defendant accepted others’ arrangement to visit Hong Kong for opening a bank account at BOCHK and to let others operate it in exchange for RMB 900. When he acceded to the deal, he knew or had reasonable grounds to believe that the account would be used illegally to launder crime proceeds.
Enquiries also revealed that scammers allegedly asked phone scam victims to deposit the four sums of money into the defendant’s bank account, purportedly for asset clearance or investigation.
An ICAC spokesperson stresses that the Commission would not request members of the public to make transfers to designated bank accounts for asset clearance or investigation. Should members of the public receive any transfer requests made by people claimed to be ICAC officers, they are urged not to follow such instructions and report the matter to the ICAC at its hotline: 25 266 366.
BOCHK has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The prosecution was represented by ICAC officer Simon Liu.
Huang Jianli, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to deal with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to Section 25(1) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance and Section 159A of the Crimes Ordinance.
In sentencing, Acting Principal Magistrate Peony Wong Nga-yan said the case involved extraterritorial element despite the period of defendant’s criminal involvement was not long and the amount of crime proceeds was not the highest among same nature of cases. Having considered the defendant’s guilty plea, his jail term was reduced to four months from a starting point of six months’ imprisonment.
The court heard that between 2018 and February 2019, the defendant conspired with others to handle four sums of Hong Kong dollar, Singaporean dollar and United States dollar, totalling about HK$180,000, in his bank account at Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK).
The investigation arose from a complaint filed with the ICAC alleging impersonation of the Commission’s officers in phone scams. It was revealed that in 2018, the defendant accepted others’ arrangement to visit Hong Kong for opening a bank account at BOCHK and to let others operate it in exchange for RMB 900. When he acceded to the deal, he knew or had reasonable grounds to believe that the account would be used illegally to launder crime proceeds.
Enquiries also revealed that scammers allegedly asked phone scam victims to deposit the four sums of money into the defendant’s bank account, purportedly for asset clearance or investigation.
An ICAC spokesperson stresses that the Commission would not request members of the public to make transfers to designated bank accounts for asset clearance or investigation. Should members of the public receive any transfer requests made by people claimed to be ICAC officers, they are urged not to follow such instructions and report the matter to the ICAC at its hotline: 25 266 366.
BOCHK has rendered full assistance to the ICAC during its investigation into the case.
The prosecution was represented by ICAC officer Simon Liu.