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Two men, aged 33 and 25, convicted of money laundering were sentenced to three and two year's imprisonment respectively by the District Court today (November 12).
The court heard that between December 2009 and January this year, four Taiwanese victims aged 60 to 82 yrs received phone calls from the culprits posing as Taiwanese judiciary officers. They accused the victims of laundering crime proceeds and directed the victims to transfer funds to designated accounts in Hong Kong and Taiwan for temporary custody so as to prove their innocence or else they would be arrested.
The victims remitted a total of $9.52 million into the bank accounts in Hong Kong but they failed to contact the culprits afterwards.
The victims suspected they were being deceived and approached the banks in Taiwan. The banks then reported the cases to Hong Kong Police.
Officers of Financial Investigation Division of Narcotics Bureau took over the case for investigations and the defendants were arrested in January this year. They were subsequently charged with five counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence.
The defendants were convicted and sentence was handed down in District Court today.
Police Report No. 12
Issued by PPRB
Ends/Friday, November 12, 2010
Issued at HKT 20:45
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