1 聯 合 財 富 情 報 組 joint financial intelligence unit suspicious transaction reporting:...
TRANSCRIPT
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Suspicious Transaction Suspicious Transaction Reporting:Reporting:
Case examplesCase examples
Detective Senior Inspector TSANG Chiu-fo
Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Joint Financial Intelligence UnitJoint Financial Intelligence Unit Established in 1989
Jointly operated by Police and Customs & Excise Department
Housed in Police Headquarters
Member of FAFT, Egmont Group & Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering
JFIU’s functions
Primarily receive, analyze and disseminate STR
Exchange financial intelligence with overseas Financial Intelligence Units
Outreach and training
Maintaining registration of remittance agents and money changers
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Regulators/Regulators/Professional associationProfessional association
Financial institutions &Financial institutions & DNFBPs DNFBPs
JFIUJFIU
Overseas FIUsOverseas FIUs
Role of JFIURole of JFIUAMLAML
GuidelineGuideline
LiaisonLiaison InformationInformation
FeedbacksFeedbacks
IntelligenceIntelligenceIntelligenceIntelligence
Law Enforcement AgenciesLaw Enforcement Agencies
Financial Services and Financial Services and the Treasury Bureauthe Treasury Bureau
Security BureauSecurity Bureau
LiaisonLiaison
LiaisonLiaison
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Suggested format & content detailed in JFIU
website (www.jfiu.gov.hk)
STREAMS
Fax
Post
Verbal (only in case of urgency – must be followed-up with a hardcopy)
Filing of STRsFiling of STRs
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
““SAFESAFE” Approach” Approach
Screen – initially assess if any suspicion arouses;
Ask – put questions to clarify those suspicion aroused from ‘Screen’;
Find – retrieve the customer’s past records, if any, and other available information to see if those suspicion is cleared out;
Evaluate – re-assess if the suspicion is still in existence. If positive, file a STR.
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Mr. X was charged with ML in HK and the proceeds derived was estimated to be around HK$500M.
Accountant’s Expert report showed that Mr. X had benefited about HK$50M from the offence, and he also made substantial payments to his claimed overseas partner.
The report was served to Mr. X and his solicitor. Restraint and Charging Order were obtained in respect of
the identified assets of Mr. X & his wife, at just around HK$3M.
Application for variation of the Restraint Order by Mr. X to allow for drawing funds for legal and living expenses from the restrained funds was unsuccessful, as court believed that Mr. X should have hidden asset.
Case Study (1)
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Despite being unable to draw on his restrained property to pay his legal expenses, Mr. X was able to fund through his solicitors a 47-day trial in the Court of Final Instance using two counsels and produced his own expert accountant report to challenge the prosecution expert.
After conviction, Mr. X could still be able to fund different counsels through the same solicitor to appear for him in Appeal Court.
After issue of Confiscation Order, Mr. X was able to settle the order without selling his charged property. Part of this was by using a cashier’s drawn from the client account of his solicitor.
Mr. X was definitely using his hidden assets to fund his costly legal defence and all through the client account of the solicitor. But no STR has been filed.
Case Study (1) – Cont’d
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Mr. Y was arrested in a neighbouring country for ‘Bookmaking’ and ML, and was detained in goal.
Mr. Z, a solicitor from HK who had been used by Mr. Y and his family to purchase considerable assets and nominee companies over the past years, visited Mr. Y in custody by instruction of Mr. Y’s wife, and gave a ‘Power of Attorney’ (“PoA”) for Mr. Y to sign to allow his wife to act on his behalf.
Mrs. Y then subsequently used his PoA to sell a number of assets to the value of HK$35M which subsequent investigation found that the assets were directly derived from Mr. Y’s ‘Bookmaking’ activities.
Mrs. Y was subsequently arrested and charged with ML in HK. However, no STR was filed by the solicitor.
Case Study (2)
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聯 合 財 富 情 報 組Joint Financial Intelligence Unit
Thanks for attention !