1 聯合財富情報組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

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聯合財富情報組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit

Suspicious Transaction Suspicious Transaction Reporting:Reporting:

Case examplesCase examples

Detective Senior Inspector TSANG Chiu-fo

Joint Financial Intelligence Unit

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Joint Financial Intelligence UnitJoint Financial Intelligence Unit Established in 1989

Jointly operated by Police and Customs & Excise Department

Housed in Police Headquarters

Member of FAFT, Egmont Group & Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering

JFIU’s functions

Primarily receive, analyze and disseminate STR

Exchange financial intelligence with overseas Financial Intelligence Units

Outreach and training

Maintaining registration of remittance agents and money changers

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Regulators/Regulators/Professional associationProfessional association

Financial institutions &Financial institutions & DNFBPs DNFBPs

JFIUJFIU

Overseas FIUsOverseas FIUs

Role of JFIURole of JFIUAMLAML

GuidelineGuideline

LiaisonLiaison InformationInformation

FeedbacksFeedbacks

IntelligenceIntelligenceIntelligenceIntelligence

Law Enforcement AgenciesLaw Enforcement Agencies

Financial Services and Financial Services and the Treasury Bureauthe Treasury Bureau

Security BureauSecurity Bureau

LiaisonLiaison

LiaisonLiaison

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Suggested format & content detailed in JFIU

website (www.jfiu.gov.hk)

STREAMS

Email

Fax

Post

Verbal (only in case of urgency – must be followed-up with a hardcopy)

Filing of STRsFiling of STRs

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““SAFESAFE” Approach” Approach

Screen – initially assess if any suspicion arouses;

Ask – put questions to clarify those suspicion aroused from ‘Screen’;

Find – retrieve the customer’s past records, if any, and other available information to see if those suspicion is cleared out;

Evaluate – re-assess if the suspicion is still in existence. If positive, file a STR.

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Mr. X was charged with ML in HK and the proceeds derived was estimated to be around HK$500M.

Accountant’s Expert report showed that Mr. X had benefited about HK$50M from the offence, and he also made substantial payments to his claimed overseas partner.

The report was served to Mr. X and his solicitor. Restraint and Charging Order were obtained in respect of

the identified assets of Mr. X & his wife, at just around HK$3M.

Application for variation of the Restraint Order by Mr. X to allow for drawing funds for legal and living expenses from the restrained funds was unsuccessful, as court believed that Mr. X should have hidden asset.

Case Study (1)

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Despite being unable to draw on his restrained property to pay his legal expenses, Mr. X was able to fund through his solicitors a 47-day trial in the Court of Final Instance using two counsels and produced his own expert accountant report to challenge the prosecution expert.

After conviction, Mr. X could still be able to fund different counsels through the same solicitor to appear for him in Appeal Court.

After issue of Confiscation Order, Mr. X was able to settle the order without selling his charged property. Part of this was by using a cashier’s drawn from the client account of his solicitor.

Mr. X was definitely using his hidden assets to fund his costly legal defence and all through the client account of the solicitor. But no STR has been filed.

Case Study (1) – Cont’d

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Mr. Y was arrested in a neighbouring country for ‘Bookmaking’ and ML, and was detained in goal.

Mr. Z, a solicitor from HK who had been used by Mr. Y and his family to purchase considerable assets and nominee companies over the past years, visited Mr. Y in custody by instruction of Mr. Y’s wife, and gave a ‘Power of Attorney’ (“PoA”) for Mr. Y to sign to allow his wife to act on his behalf.

Mrs. Y then subsequently used his PoA to sell a number of assets to the value of HK$35M which subsequent investigation found that the assets were directly derived from Mr. Y’s ‘Bookmaking’ activities.

Mrs. Y was subsequently arrested and charged with ML in HK. However, no STR was filed by the solicitor.

Case Study (2)

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Thanks for attention !

1 聯合財富情報組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

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Transcript of 1 聯合財富情報組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

1 聯 合 財 富 情 報 組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

Documents

Transcript of 1 聯 合 財 富 情 報 組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

1 聯合財富情報組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...

Transcript of 1 聯合財富情報組 Joint Financial Intelligence Unit Suspicious Transaction Reporting:...