HKSAR v. BUNRUANGSAK BURIN

DCCC 871/2024 & 391/2025

[2026] HKDC 655

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NOS. 871 OF 2024 AND 391 OF 2025

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REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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1.  The 1st defendant pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence, contrary to section 25(1) and (3) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, Cap. 455.

2.  The particulars of offence were that the defendant, between 14 February 2022 and 16 May 2022, together with a person known as “Mike”, had dealt with the amount of HK$5,561,954.26 in his Standard Chartered Bank account, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that property, in whole or in part directly or indirectly represented any person’s proceeds of an indictable offence.

Facts

3.  In August 2021, the victim fell prey to an online game scam.  She transferred various amount of money to the designated bank accounts between August 2021 and February 2022.  One of these accounts included the 1st defendant’s Standard Chartered Bank account.  As a result, the victim suffered a total loss of HK$1.63 million, of which about HK$217,900 were deposited into the 1st defendant’s account.

4.  Concerning the background of the account, the 1st defendant opened that on 14 February 2022 and he was the sole authorized signatory of the account. Between 14 February 2022 and 16 May 2022, there were altogether 191 deposits made into the account, totaling about $5.5 million-odd.  During the same period, the account had 194 withdrawals, totaling roughly about the same amount.  This indicated that the account was used as a temporary repository of funds as there were frequent deposits and withdrawals and the transactions in the account displayed mirror and smurfing patterns, while the day end balances were usually low in the period under review.

5.  In the video-recorded interview, the 1st defendant admitted that he opened that account a few years ago.  Later the boss of his casual friend, Mike, asked him to open the bank account and said he would pay the 1st defendant HK$1,000 to HK$3,000.  He then passed the online login details and password of the account to Mike but he was never paid.  He did not use that account afterwards and he did not know about the transactions in the account.  He was a part-time cook with monthly salary of about HK$20,000.

6.  The 1st defendant admitted at the material time, he, jointly with the person he lent his account to, dealt with the relevant property, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that said property, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly represented any person’s proceeds of an indictable offence.

Mitigation

7.  In mitigation, Mr Pannu submitted that the defendant, now aged 32 years old, was born in Thailand and came to Hong Kong in 2009.  He was married but separated in 2017.  He worked as a cleaner but stopped working in March 2024. He was originally granted bail, but in order to show remorse, he applied to have his own bail revoked.  He has a clear criminal record.

8.  Mr Pannu set out some Court of Appeal cases concerning the sentencing guidelines about money laundering case, including HKSAR v Boma [2012] 2 HKLRD 33, which provided the relevant sentencing factors for consideration.  Also in HKSAR v Hsu Yu Yi [2010] 5 HKLRD 545, setting out that the court proposed 3 years or so for cases involving black money of HK$1 to 2 million, and 4 years or so for cases involving HK$3 to 6 million.  And that was also confirmed by the case of HKSAR v Wan Kwok Keung [2012] 1 HKLRD 201.

9.  For the present case, the amount involved was more than HK$5.5 million. It is submitted that the starting point may be about 4 years’ imprisonment. 

10.  It is submitted that the 1st defendant is a naive person, through friendships he is abused and used by others to leave all the details to the friend, and then money laundering can be proceeded.  He now showed remorse in this case and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

11.  For the enhancement that the prosecution applied, the 1st defendant did not resist but said that in recent years, the cases for stooge cases are decreasing, so the range of enhancement can be lowered to maybe 20%.

12.  In court, Mr Pannu further supplemented that it could be worth noted that the predicate offence is only representing a very small part of the total amount involved.  The 1st defendant got a clear record.  The recent statement showing that the number of cases involving money laundering and stooge account had been decreasing, so maybe the range of enhancement could be lowered in the circumstances. 

Consideration

13.  Money laundering is a serious offence.  As stated above in the cases of Boma, Hsu Yu Yi and Wan Kwok Keung, the court had already listed out some of the relevant factors and the range of sentences to be imposed.

14.  In the present case, the amount involved was about more than HK$5.5 million which was quite substantial, covering quite some months, but there is no evidence suggesting that the 1st defendant knew anything about the fraud or any underlying offence.  The 1st defendant was clearly being used to provide a stooge account to deal with the money in question.

15.  Considering all the background factors and the mitigation, I also agree with Mr Pannu that the starting point may be set to 4 years’ imprisonment.

16.  But given the 1st defendant’s clear record, full cooperation with the police, and also in court saying that he is willing to help if needed to point out the underlying person, but of course at the moment there is nothing that has been made in that regard.  But in any circumstance, I will take that into account, so that eventually I would set the starting point as 3 years and 9 months’ imprisonment.  Upon the 1st defendant’s guilty plea, that will be reduced to 30 months’ imprisonment.

17.  Finally, concerning the application of enhancement, according to the latest statistics provided by CIP Mr Li dated 23 March 2026, the amount involved in fraud and money laundering had increased from HK$3 billion in 2020 to HK$12 billion in 2023, and then it came down to about HK$7.6 billion in 2025.  The amount involving stooge accounts ranged from about HK$1.8 billion in 2020 up to HK$9.9 billion in 2023 and then down to about HK$3.9 billion in 2025. 

18.  Though the amount tends to decrease in recent years, the total amount involved was still very substantial and no doubt causing harm to the community as a whole.  Therefore, the application for enhancement should be allowed and I assess that the enhancement in the circumstances should be about 20%.  I set a 6 months’ enhancement in the present case would be appropriate.

19.  Therefore upon enhancement the sentence shall be 30 months plus 6 months, that would come to 36 months’ imprisonment.  The 1st defendant is sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment.