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| Police show items they seized after cracking a money-laundering case (File) |
If you give up
control over your bank account, including your ATM (automated teller machine)
card, you are deemed to have given consent to the other person to use them for
whatever purpose, including committing a crime, in particular, money
laundering.
This was the
explanation given by Eastern Magistrate Jeffrey Sze after he found two Filipina
domestic helpers guilty after trial of the crime of “dealing with property
known or believed to be proceeds of an indictable offence” or more commonly
known as money laundering.
Leonida C.
Manlunas, 40 years old and Nora A. Reymundo, 47, were immediately put behind
bars pending their sentencing on June 14.
According to
Magistrate Sze, the test of whether an accused knew or had reason to believe that
he or she is dealing with proceeds of a crime is objective, not subjective,
meaning it is what any reasonable person would conclude given the facts.
In the cases of
Manlunas and Reymundo, they should have known that the bank accounts they
opened at HSBC in their names, then let other people operate, would be used for
illegal purposes, said Sze.
He called the
statements given by both defendants inconsistent and unreliable, in contrast to those made by the prosecution witnesses.
In addition, the
defendants must have known that opening a bank account for another person to
use was at best suspicious, said the judge, noting that both women received monetary
compensation for their effort.
Manlunas dealt
with a total of $387,000 which was laundered through an HSBC account in her
name between Dec. 18, 2020 and Jan. 8, 2021. She received $1,600 from her aunt
Josephine for opening the account.
Reymundo, on the
other hand, laundered total of $903,000 which passed through her account with
HSBC between Feb 10, 2021 and Mar 4, 2021. She was paid $500 when she
surrendered the ATM card to a man in Central who met up with her on the day she
opened the account.
All the money
that was deposited into their respective bank accounts were said to be proceeds
of a love scam perpetrated on a local elderly woman.
Both women were
put under trial from Mar 11 to 13 at Eastern Court after each denied a charge
of money laundering.
Manlunas said in
her defence that she opened the account at the request of her aunt Josephine, who
said a friend called Selina needed it to transfer some money.
After opening
the account, Manlunas received text messages from HSBC warning her each time a
transaction over the $50,000 threshold was made into it, but she said she did not
understand what they were about.
However,
she did not call the bank’s hotline for clarification. Eventually, her account
was closed by HSBC.
Magistrate Sze
said he found it “extremely unreasonable” that Manlunas did not try to inquire about the messages, or regain
control of her account despite the bank’s repeated notification.
In Reymundo’s
case, she said she opened her HSBC account after being repeatedly asked by a
younger cousin, Angelita Antonio, who said her friend’s boyfriend needed it to
receive money from abroad. This said friend, Ronilda or Dang Sumili, allegedly
could not open an account in her name as her employer was working with HSBC.
Despite having an
existing account with Hang Seng Bank, Reymundo agreed to open another one at HSBC’s
branch in Central. As soon as she received the ATM card for the account, she
immediately handed it over to Dang’s boyfriend called Chad who gave her $500,
even when she was supposed to get $2,000 for doing the bidding.
Reymundo was
arrested on Jun 17, 2021, along with Angelita and Dang, who, however, managed
to flee the city while out on bail.
In his reasons
for judgment, Sze asked why Reymundo had to open a new account with HSBC when
she already had an existing one with Hang Seng. He also pointed out that the
defendant readily surrendered control over her bank account to someone she met only
for the first time.
The magistrate
said a bank account is a valuable personal property that should not be
controlled by another person. Also, domestic workers who barely earn $5,000 a
month should be alarmed when they see their
accounts being used for large cash transactions.
While there is
no direct evidence that either defendant dealt directly with the illicit money
that passed through their accounts, they should be held accountable because as
owners of the accounts they were deemed to have direct control over them, said the court.
In mitigation,
the defense lawyer said both defendants were not highly educated, having only
completed high school, so they did not know how to easily check the
transactions made in their respective accounts.
They were remorseful
but chose to plead not guilty because they had a reasonable ground to believe
they were innocent as they were not directly involved in the illegal use
of their bank accounts.
In addition,
Manlunas is said to be supporting both her elderly parents, two teenage children, and the 20-year-old
daughter of a brother who just passed away.
Reymundo is also
supporting her 78-year-old mother and four children, three of them adults, but
the youngest who is just 14 years old, is still at school. She also has three
grandchildren to help look after.
Several
mitigation letters were submitted to court in their behalf, including one
from the employers of Manlunas, who
supported her throughout her ordeal.
The lawyer asked
for a lenient sentence, saying that while imprisonment is inevitable in their case,
there was little or no chance of them reoffending as they will be deported to the Philippines right after serving their sentence.
Money laundering
is a serious offence in Hong Kong, for which the prescribed maximum penalty is
14 years in jail and fine of up to $5 million. However, the maximum sentence
that a magistracy can normally impose is two years’ imprisonment and a fine of
$100,000.
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