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| District Court |
A Filipina was jailed for 12 months today, a day after she pleaded guilty at the District Court to letting her bank account be used for money laundering.
Judge Lily Wong declined to give domestic helper Rachel
Galvadores, 48 years old, any more discount on her original sentence of 18
months than the one-third cut granted to those who plead guilty.
Galvadores was convicted of “dealing with property known or
believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offense”, in violation of the
Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, after $444,700 was deposited and withdrawn
from her Hang Seng Bank account between January 2020 and Nov. 18, 2020.
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| Pindutin para sa detalye |
One of the sources of the money was a woman, identified only as Prosecution Witness 1, who testified that she was a victim of a love scam that tricked her into transferring $10,000 to Galvadores’ Hang Seng account.
In mitigation, the defense lawyer cited several facts that sought
to paint Galvadores in favorable light, such as contributing to Hong Kong society
by working for one employer for 18 years, and being the sole breadwinner for her
two children and mother in the Philippines.
The lawyer also described her as remorseful, having learned her
lesson, and that she had no idea that her ATM card would be used in scams.\
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
Judge Wong shrugged these off, saying, “She does not deserve
it.”
She noted that Galvadores lent her ATM card to a woman only
identified as Victoria, after being promised $1,000 in reward, although she never
got paid.
She also cited High Court decisions that consider money laundering a serious crime, which undermines the integrity of the banking system.
The charge against Galvadores was the first to be resolved
in the case in which two other persons were charged with dealing with crime
money.
Fellow Filipina Richel Gania is accused of letting her Hang
Seng bank account be used for laundering $189,110.04 between April 1, 2018 and Nov. 1, 2020.
Wong Chi-tang is accused of dealing with $3.7 million in
crime money that flowed in and out of his Bank of China account between April
1, 2018 and March 31, 2021.
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