Ex-hairdresser who bought Birmingham City fights HK conviction

The money-laundering conviction of a former hairdresser who bought British soccer club Birmingham City should be overturned as the judge failed to consider evidence properly, his lawyer said.
The lower court judge didn’t use the right approach in convicting Carson Yeung of five charges of laundering HKD721 million (USD93 million), his lawyer Clare Montgomery told the Hong Kong Court of Appeal yesterday.
Hong Kong’s top court in a ruling on a separate case after Yeung’s March 2014 conviction raised the level of proof prosecutors need on such offenses, the lawyer told the three-judge panel. Yeung, serving a six-year jail term, failed to convince the lower court judge that the funds were winnings from gambling or profit from investments.
“It’s no longer good enough for prosecutors to simply lead evidence of third-party transactions,” Montgomery said. More evidence is now required that any reasonable person would believe the funds are criminal proceeds, she said.
Yeung, 55, was part of a money-laundering machine linked to organized crime in Macau, prosecutors said during the 55-day trial. He resigned as chairman of Hong Kong-listed Birmingham International Holdings Ltd. ahead of his conviction.
Evidence was carefully considered before Yeung was convicted, said Jonathan Caplan, a lawyer for the prosecution. The judge then inferred that Yeung would have had reasonable grounds to believe the funds passing through his accounts were the proceeds of crime, he said.
Caplan also disagreed that Yeung was prejudiced because multiple transactions were put under one charge.
A ruling on Yeung’s appeal will be handed down at a later date.
Birmingham International Holdings, which took control of the soccer club in 2009, appointed receivers from Ernst & Young last month to preserve its assets and business. The shares have been suspended since Dec. 4.  Douglas Wong, Bloomberg