Carson Yeung Ka-sing, businessman and former chairman of the Birmingham City Football Club, was found guilty of money laundering this week. Photo: David WongPwC's poll found 27 per cent of financial services companies globally had experienced money laundering.
On Monday, a Hong Kong court found Carson Yeung Ka-sing, owner of English soccer club Birmingham City, guilty of laundering HK$721 million through Hong Kong bank accounts.
"It was refreshing to see a more substantive target prosecuted under the recent money laundering legislation," said Steve Vickers, chief executive of Steve Vickers Associates, a Hong Kong risk consultancy.
"It is important that targets are carefully selected to make sure the big fish, not the minnows, are selected."
The two previous major cases of money laundering in Hong Kong involved an elderly woman and a young man, and both of them received prison terms, Vickers noted.
A new law against money laundering and terrorist financing took effect in Hong Kong in 2012. Courts convicted 140 people of money laundering last year, 166 in 2012 and 246 in 2011. The government recovered HK$639.74 million of laundered money last year, HK$23.6 million in 2012 and HK$1.6 billion in 2011.
Money laundering huge in Hong Kong and Macau: crime survey | South China Morning Post