Hong Kong court rejects appeal against conviction of Former Birmingham City FC owner

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Hong Kong court rejects appeal against conviction of Former Birmingham City FC owner

Former Birmingham City owner had reason to believe cash in accounts was proceeds of crime

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 13 May, 2015, 12:28pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 14 May, 2015, 1:20am

Julie Chu [email protected]

Hairdresser-turned-tycoon Carson Yeung was convicted of five counts of money laundering. Photo: AP

Former Birmingham City Football Club owner Carson Yeung Ka-sing lost his appeal against his conviction on five money laundering counts involving more than HK$721 million.

Court of Appeal judge Mr Justice Michael Lunn ruled yesterday that the case against Yeung was sound, and that there was plenty of evidence Yeung knew the money he was receiving came from criminal activity.

Lunn heard the case as part of a three-judge panel alongside Mr Justice Andrew Macrae and Mr Justice Ian McWalters.

In their judgment, they said there was "cogent evidence" Yeung had dealt with deposits of cash in two bank accounts, and that the judge in the original trial "was entitled to find that … [Yeung] had reasonable grounds to believe that they were the proceeds of an indictable offence".

They dismissed Yeung's appeal against his conviction and adjourned the case to May 15 to listen to his appeal against his six-year prison sentence.

Yeung started out as a hairdresser and claimed he accumulated his wealth through stock trading and gambling in Macau. He shot to fame when he bought the English soccer team.

He was convicted in February last year of five charges of laundering HK$721 million using five bank accounts at Wing Lung Bank and HSBC between 2001 and 2007.

The court heard earlier that from 2001, various parties made deposits into the accounts, many for no apparent reason. Some were made by securities firms and a Macau casino, while others were made by unknown parties. Of those deposits, 437 were made in cash, totalling more than HK$97 million.

During Yeung's appeal hearing in March, his lawyer, barrister Clare Montgomery QC, argued that District Court Judge Douglas Yau Tak-hong erred in ruling that Yeung knew the money was related to criminal activity.

She also asserted the trial judge was wrong to rule that some of the funds came from illegal gambling, arguing that because some of the deposits into Yeung's accounts came from a Macau casino operator, Sociedade de Jogos de Macau, they could have been related to legal gambling.

But the appeal court yesterday found the judge determined appropriately that the evidence showed 10 SJM cash cheques deposited into Yeung's account did not necessarily come from legitimate gambling winnings. Yau found there was no evidence, aside from Yeung's own assertion that he was an "avid gambler", to show he had played and won legally.

The court found that Yau ruled correctly that Yeung had reasonable grounds to believe an unexplained huge sum of money deposited into his accounts over a short period of time came from an indictable offence.