A 36-year-old Hong Kong man has been arrested by customs officers on suspicion of money laundering, 11,000 bank transfers worth HK$16 million between February 2023 and June 2024 were allegedly discovered to have been received and transferred in his six personal bank accounts, according to the customs authority.
The customs spokesperson said on Thursday that their findings showed that the suspect's bank accounts are involved in receiving or transferring illegal funds to more than 5,000 third-party accounts over 16 months.
It was also revealed by the reports that one of the suspect’s bank accounts was involved in more than 180 transactions in a single day.
It was added that the unknown source of money usually involves less than HK$1,000 each time was deposited into the suspect's account.
Customs said he used designed strategies to avoid banks detecting him for transacting the illegal funds.
The suspect was a delivery van driver and did not own any property and a huge amount of money processed by the man’s bank accounts was not in proportion with his financial status, it was said.
The man was arrested on Wednesday in Chai Wan, seizing two mobile phones and related bank accounts from him, customs said.
He was detained on suspicion of money laundering, an offence which is punishable by up to 14 years in jail and a HK$5 million fine.
He was released on bail pending further investigation and more arrests are still possible, customs said.
一名本地男子涉嫌洗錢1600萬港元（200萬美元）被香港海關逮捕
一名36歲香港男子因涉嫌洗黑錢被海關拘捕，涉嫌在2023年2月至2024年6月期間發現11,000筆銀行轉賬，價值1,600萬港元，涉嫌在他的六個個人銀行賬戶中接收和轉賬，據海關當局稱。
海關發言人週四表示，他們的調查結果顯示，嫌疑人的銀行帳戶在 16 個月內向 5,000 多個第三方帳戶接收或轉移非法資金。
報道還透露，嫌犯的一個銀行帳戶單日涉及180多筆交易。
據補充，不明來源的款項每次存入嫌疑人帳戶的金額通常少於1,000港元。
海關表示，他使用了精心設計的策略來避免銀行發現他交易非法資金。
據稱，嫌疑人是一名送貨車司機，沒有任何財產，該男子銀行帳戶處理的巨額資金與其財務狀況不相稱。
海關稱，該男子週三在柴灣被捕，並被扣押兩部手機和相關銀行帳戶。
他因涉嫌洗錢罪被拘留，最高可判處14年監禁和500萬港元罰款。
海關表示，他已被保釋，等待進一步調查，仍有可能進一步被捕。
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