- Hong Kong police have arrested six people in connection with a money laundering scheme involving cryptocurrencies.
- The arrested persons laundered illicit funds worth over HK$100 million ($12.7 million) through crypto tokens.
- The police stated that the laundered funds were sent to e-wallet accounts overseas.
The Hong Kong Police Force has arrested six individuals in connection with a money laundering scheme through cryptocurrencies. The arrested persons included a postsecondary student, who is suspected to be one of the two core members of the operation. The police believe that the student played a key role in leveraging cryptocurrencies to launder illegal funds.
According to a report by the South China Morning Post, the arrested individuals laundered a whopping HK$100 million (USD 12.7 million) over the course of three months. The police revealed that the syndicate was handling more than HK$1 million every day. The syndicate concealed the origins and flow of the illegal funds by trading cryptocurrencies using e-wallet accounts.
“It was a well-organized syndicate with a clear division of work and used multilayered approaches to increase the difficulty of police investigation,” stated Senior Inspector Chu Ming-man of the Hong Kong Island anti-triad squad. The investigation began in April this year after the police received intelligence about the syndicate’s illicit operations.
The investigation found that the arrested persons had set up bank accounts in mainland China to collect the proceeds from various scams they were running. They then used debit cards to launder the illicit funds by purchasing valuables including watches and gold jewelry in Hong Kong. The funds received by reselling the valuables were used to buy crypto tokens.
During the arrest, the Hong Kong police seized more than HK$1 million in cash and valuables, as well as debit cards associated with the operation. The members of the syndicate were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to launder crime proceeds and defraud. The police indicated that there may be more arrests based on the findings of the ongoing investigation.
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