 |
| Police show materials they use to warn public against fraud and money laundering |
With barely two months into the new year, the number of people arrested on suspicion of money laundering is already more than half of the total last year, said the police.
Officers who held a press briefing
Friday said more than 1,1150 people were arrested for this offence in 2022.
Since the start of the year, more than 630 people have already been detained on
suspicion of laundering a whopping $7.8 billion.
 |
| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
 | |
|
The big jump in the number of
arrests is being attributed to the rise in fraud cases during the pandemic.
People behind the scams needed to hide the illicit money they obtained.
Chief Inspector Tse Tsz-fung
said online sales fraud is one of the major areas of concern.
 |
| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
“This is one of the very
typical type, where we have a deception case. You have the money, the crime
proceed(s), the deceived money going into a bank account of an unknown person,”
he said.
The end result is that the police catch the person who is the account holder, but has no idea about the deception that was committed, said Tse.
 |
| Pindutin para sa detalye |
 |
| BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS NOW! PRESS FOR DETAILS |
“All he knows is ‘I sold my
account’, or ‘I lent it to my friend’, which is quite an unacceptable and
unreasonable excuse we are seeing.”
He said the police have been
at pains to tell the public no one should sell or lend their bank accounts to
anyone because chances are, they will be used for money laundering. And if that happens, they will be equally liable as the people who laundered money through their accounts.
 |
| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
At the same time, they are
trying to speed up the prosecution of those who get involved, wittingly or
unwittingly, in the laundering trade.
