Hong Kong police arrest beverage store owner for allegedly laundering HK$11 million - South China Morning Post

Hong Kong police have arrested a woman on suspicion of running a beverage store as a front to launder more than HK$11 million (US$1.4 million) linked to a string of thefts targeting airline passengers as they travelled to the city.

The force arrested the 43-year-old store owner on Thursday in connection with reports between late September and early October that four tourists flying from Turkey to Hong Kong had their credit cards stolen mid-journey.

An investigation indicated the stolen credit cards were later used to make purchases at the store owned by the suspect, police said.

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“Police believe that the suspect established the store as a smokescreen, so they could partake in money laundering activities,” Inspector Yip Yan-Wa of the Yau Tsim district investigation team said. “The criminals would make multiple transactions, with each transaction ranging from HK$20,000 to HK$50,000.

“[They] would make multiple small value transactions to prevent themselves from exceeding the card’s credit limit in one go and having the card issuing bank inform the owner.”

The woman was listed as the holder of the shop’s bank account and had rented the premises in Yau Ma Tei, police said.

The force added that it believed the store was connected to the thefts since all the purchases were done with the stolen cards at various hours, with multiple transactions being performed each time.

Inspector Yip Yan-Wa of Yau Tsim’s district investigation team says police believe the store was used as a front to launder money. Photo: Facebook/@Hong Kong Police Force

Yip said a police investigation indicated the initial number of transactions recorded by the store’s point of sale device had appeared normal, with the amount spent ranging from several hundred Hong Kong dollars to HK$10,000.

But the number of transactions and amount spent had risen sharply between September 25 to 30 and involved the use of 41 credit cards to make purchases totalling about HK$1.8 million.

Only 43 of the transactions that totalled about HK$580,000 were successful, as some of the credit cards were already reported lost.

The suspicious credit cards included those stolen from the four airline passengers and another one taken during a burglary.

Police also detected irregularities among the store’s banking records and uncovered more than 700 transactions involving HK$11.7 million in suspected crime proceeds that spanned from the end of 2022 to late November this year.

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“With regards to the movement of funds through [the store’s account], the background of the account’s holder, as well as the size of the store involved in this case and its operation mode, police believe that most of the money inside this account and its transactions were completely unrelated to the operations of the store,” Yip said.

Officers had not found many invoices for stock orders, despite the premises operating as a beverage store, nor could they find any business-related transactions among its banking records, the inspector said.

The force said the store owner was arrested on suspicion of theft, burglary, obtaining property by deception and money laundering, adding that the woman was released on bail and must report to police in January.

Police said they had yet to determine whether the suspect played a direct role in the credit cards thefts, noting that further arrests in connection with the case were possible.

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