Man jailed for money laundering
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A 38-year-old British man who was involved in a shares investment fraud was today (November 26) jailed for three years and four months.

The District Court heard that a shares investment fraud syndicate based in Spain was believed to have involved in the fraudulent trading of shares and duping individual investors in the United Kingdom to transfer thousands of pounds to the defendant's bank accounts in Hong Kong.

After a request for assistance in 2007 from the law enforcement agency in the UK, Hong Kong's Commercial Crime Bureau took up the investigation. It was revealed that the victims were phoned by people claiming to represent an investment advisory firm and offering shares in a number of mainly US registered companies.

The victims were persuaded to buy shares in high-risk companies and were requested to transfer money into the accounts held by him in Hong Kong. But the victims were then unable to get any money for their shares when they tried to sell them.

CCB officers found that he operated 11 bank accounts, with four of them specifically being used as temporary depositories for the fraud proceeds.

Between June 2005 and March 2007, about HK$680 million was transferred by the victims to four accounts held by the defendant. The sum was then transferred by him¡@ to two other accounts in Europe while about HK$24 million - believed to be his commission - was transferred to his personal account in Hong Kong.

He was subsequently arrested in June 2007 and charged with five counts of dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence. He was convicted on November 24 and sentence was handed down today.

Police Report No.6
Issued by PPRB
End/Wednesday, November 26, 2008
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