Hong Kong | Four arrested for money laundering linked to unrest

Hong Kong’s police arrested four people for suspected money laundering linked to ongoing pro-democracy protests and froze money from a fund that’s raised millions to help support the demonstrations.

Police froze HKD70 million ($9 million) in local bank deposits and personal insurance products related to a fund called Spark Alliance, according to Chan Wai-kei, senior superintendent of the financial investigation branch of the force’s Narcotics Bureau. The fund, which is linked to a shell company, has raised HKD80 million since the protests started in June.

Police noticed suspicious activity from the fund, including a large number of cash deposits and significant purchases of personal-insurance products, Chan said at a Thursday press briefing.

“The police attempted, through false statements, to distort the work of Spark Alliance as money laundering for malicious uses,” the fund said in a Facebook post. This is an attempt to defame Spark Alliance and other support channels. Spark Alliance condemns this kind of defamatory action.”

The people arrested include a student, two clerks and a human resources manager, aged 17 to 50, he said, without naming them. All four were affiliated with the fund and shell company, with one being the director and shareholder, Chan said.

Chan said police also seized items including HKD130,000 in cash and HKD160,000 in receipts for supermarket coupons, but didn’t specify from whom.

Hong Kong’s economy is ending the year wounded, with chances for stabilization in 2020 hanging on whether future protests are peaceful or violent. Economists forecast a 1.3% contraction for 2019 and predict year-on-year declines will continue in the first two quarters of 2020.

Protests began in June over since-scrapped legislation allowing extraditions to mainland China and have expanded into calls for greater democracy in the former British colony. Alfred Liu, Bloomberg