HKSAR v. WONG CHI LEI

DCCC 53/2013

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

CRIMINAL CASE NO 53 OF 2013

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Reasons for Sentence

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1. Wong Chi-lei, you have been convicted on your own plea of dealing with a total of $ll,650,392.05 knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that that money represented the proceeds of an indictable offence.

2. You opened a savings account with HSBC on 24 January 2003 and were issued with an ATM card and a phone banking password. 

3. The police have not investigated the activities during the whole period that account has been opened, but they have conducted an investigation into the activities on that account between l January 2007 and the date of your arrest on 18 August 2010, about 3½ years later.  Over that period there were l,058 deposits into the account totalling $ll,650,392.05, the amount of money referred to in the charge.  Most of the deposits were made through instant deposits machines, or ATM transfers. 

4. Over the same period there were 629 withdrawals, mostly by telephone transfers, totalling $ll,570,420. 

5. At the time of your arrest you chose to remain silent, apart from admitting that you were the sole signatory of the account, so the police were given no explanation from you as to how these transactions occurred. 

6. The explanation I have been given today through your counsel, which differs from the account in the skeleton submissions that were submitted to me by your counsel, is that the bank account was originally opened by you in 2003 at the request of someone you knew while you were working in a nightclub.  It is apparent from the written submissions given to me by Mr Cheung that between 2003 and 2005 you were working in a nightclub.  This was clearly not a reputable establishment as on the 7 January 2005 you were convicted of managing a vice establishment.  The explanation I have been given is that this man, the man who asked you to open the account, offered you $4,000 if you did so.  You agreed and opened the account giving the bank a false address.  You then gave this man your ATM card and phone banking password. 

7. I am told that you did not know what activity the man who requested you to open this account was engaged in.  You made no enquiries from him as to the use he intended to make of the account.  However, it would have been abundantly apparent to you that the account was likely to be used for money-laundering.  In such circumstances it is not a mitigating circumstance to claim that you did not know the use that would be made of the account. For all you knew it could have been used to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking. 

8. The paramount consideration when it comes to sentence is deterrence.  While I have to pass sentence on the basis that you simply opened this bank account for somebody else and had nothing to do with transactions thereafter in the account, I also have to bear in mind that you were deliberately shutting your eyes to the use that would be made of it in circumstances where there was reasonable grounds to believe that it would be used to receive the proceeds of an indictable offence. 

9. When you opened the account you had made no enquiries as to how the account would be used and over the following 7 years or so you made no enquiries with the bank as to the transactions that were taking place within the account. 

10. I do bear in mind that while the charge relates to events between January 2007 and August 2010, the offence really dates back to your actions in 2003 when you agreed to open this account.  I also bear in mind that you are somebody who, in recent years since your conviction in 2005, appears to have worked hard in your chosen career.  I bear in mind that there is no international element in this offence. 

11. Taking all these circumstances into account I am satisfied that the appropriate starting point in this case is 3 years’ imprisonment.  You are entitled to the usual discount of one-third, and I therefore pass a sentence of 2 years’ imprisonment.