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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, to a question by the Hon Sin Chung-kai in the Legislative Council today (June 26):
Question:
Under the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance (Cap. 405) and the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 455), a person commits an offence if, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property (including money) is proceeds of an offence, he deals with that property (commonly known as "money laundering"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number and average duration of the Mareva Injunctions issued by the Court in the past five years in relation to money laundering offences, as well as the amount of money involved;
(b) of the number of cases in which the persons concerned sought judicial review of the Mareva Injunctions, the number of successful cases among such cases, and the number of cases in which persons whose assets had been frozen were prosecuted for money laundering offences by the authorities, in the past five years; and
(c) of the number of criminal cases involving cross-boundary money laundering activities detected by the authorities in the past five years, and how the Government dealt with such criminal cases?
Reply:
President,
According to section 25 of both the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance (DTROPO) (Cap. 405) and the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (OSCO) (Cap. 455), a person commits an offence, if, knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property in whole or in part directly or indirectly represents any person's proceeds of an indictable offence (including drug trafficking), he deals with that property. Besides, section 10 of Cap. 405 and section 15 of Cap. 455 stipulate that the Court of First Instance may, by a restraint order, prohibit any person from dealing with any realisable property, subject to such conditions and exceptions as may be specified in the order.
In consultation with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and relevant departments, the reply to the question is as follows:
(a) In the past five years, the Court of First Instance had made a total of 115 restraint orders pursuant to section 10 of DTROPO (Cap. 405) and section 15 of OSCO (Cap. 455), involving some HK$5.4 billion. The duration of restraint orders generally lasts from several months to years, depending on the circumstances of individual cases.
(b) There has been no judicial review regarding restraint orders in the past five years. Nevertheless, there were two successful attempts of discharge applications. The respondents of the 115 aforementioned restraint orders have either been charged or prosecuted.
(c) Hong Kong has been an active participant in global efforts to combat money laundering and has put in place a robust anti-money laundering (AML) regime in line with the relevant international standards through legislation, law enforcement, regulation of the financial sectors, issuance of guidelines, publicity and education, and international co-operation. The regime has been functioning well and is positively recognised by overseas counterparts, international organisations and the relevant international AML standard setting bodies, including the Financial Action Task Force. The Administration has not maintained separate record on the number of criminal cases involving cross-boundary money laundering activities.
The Administration and law enforcement agencies will maintain close liaison and exchange information with relevant international organisations and counterparts outside Hong Kong. We will also keep under review the effectiveness of existing measures and sustain our efforts in combating money laundering activities on all fronts.
Ends/Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Issued at HKT 13:16
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