Hong Kong Arrests 25 in HK$7M Crypto Money Laundering Case

Hong Kong police have cracked down on a crypto laundering group and have arrested 25 people for executing a defraud of over 7 Million Yuan.

According to local media, a police squad from Wong Tai Sin District Criminal Division conducted a law enforcement operation codenamed “Lian Dou” from September 19 to 26, and cracked down on a local group involved in using cryptocurrency to launder money, and committing 39 fraud cases.

Senior Inspector Mak Ning-fung of the Wong Tai Sin District Criminal Division Squad said out of 25 people arrested, 18 were men and 7 were women, aged between 19 and 65 –suspected of “obtaining property by deception” and “money laundering”. The group of suspects consists of construction workers, waiters and some unemployed individuals.

More than 20 electronic devices were seized from the premises of the head of the group, and two crypto cold wallets believed to be used in the case were also seized.

The group started operating in May 2023, and after defrauding victims via different types of fraud and depositing money into dummy bank accounts, some core members used the exchange accounts opened and transferred money on P2P platforms.

Local media reported that “other core members transferred the “laundered” cryptocurrencies to the exchange account of the group’s mastermind through the same platform or cold wallet”. Inspector Wan Man-kin has also informed that the 39 fraud cases involved in the group were mainly online investment fraud, online job search fraud and fake customer service fraud. A total amount of HK$7 million were lost in the scam, and the single loss amount ranged from HK$3,000 to HK$1.6 million.

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