Name: SCMP
Telephone: +852-2680-8888

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Jake Van Der Kamp

Hong Kong and Macau have launched simultaneous shake-ups of the systems they have in place to tackle the growing menace of money laundering. -- SCMP, May 27
A news story is the opposite of a Swedish novel. With Stieg Larsson, you get 300 pages of character development before the first clue to the crime. With a news story you are meant to find out who did it in the first paragraph.
This makes our account of the latest piece of government puff-puff on money laundering appear rather odd. It was done Swedish style. The big clue to what is happening came near the end.
There, it was revealed that all the talk of co-operation with Macau and the setting up a task force to deal with intelligence on dirty cash flows “comes ahead of a key visit early next year by an audit team from the Financial Action Task Force...”
My, my, we are to have a meeting of the task forces. How they love the naval idiom in these financial police agencies.
But let me not disparage the weaponry of FATF, which was established in Paris by the G7 group of countries in 1989 to do battle against dirty money.
Life can be made very difficult for any place that thinks of itself as a financial centre, if FATF deems that place non-compliant with its strictures.
Hong Kong is a member and was last the subject of a full audit in 2012, at which time we were patted on the back as having generally done a good job, except that we needed to improve our procedures for freezing bank accounts and do something about large cash movements across the border with the mainland.
Now we must prepare for another audit. Thus, break out the champagne bottle to relaunch the good vessel Bafflegab in the cause of enforcing righteousness (and rich country tax collections).
For we indeed have a problem. As the chart shows, private capital inflows and outflows each amounted to more than 100 per cent of gross domestic product on three occasions over the last 10 years and are at all times almost perfectly matched.

The more normal pattern for a more normal economy might be inflows and outflows equivalent to about 5 per cent of GDP and they would not be matched.
What we have here, in other words, is evidence of cross-border money laundering as strong as the proverbial blood-stained knife in a murder trial. And it is gigantic in scale. The money comes in dirty in the hundreds of billions of dollars and goes right back out again clean.
But we also have our ways of diverting attention from the hard evidence. Money laundering is defined as dealing in the proceeds of crime, but our law does not require proof of any underlying crime.
When charged, it is enough that you handled money as a money launderer might do. That makes you guilty.
If I had to send people to long jail terms in such a miscarriage of justice, I would first send someone to my home to remove all the mirrors so that I would have less of a chance of seeing myself for the next few years. I wonder if any of the judges who did it have as much self-respect.
Because they have indeed done it. In our jails, we have a number of cross-border cash couriers whose only offence was reluctance to divulge their sources of cash. How many I cannot say. No underlying crimes were ever proven.
But it goes over well with FATF. We’re tough on money laundering. Look how many people we have sent to jail for it. Now give us our certificate of compliance.
And don’t bring your noses closer, please. This stinks.


The tale of murkiness that is the Lok Ma Chau Loop

China refusal to apologise for CCTV blackface skit all wrong

Plug Hong Kong Disney’s bottomless cash sinkhole forever and ever, and use its magic land for homes

China’s got a trade problem that can’t be solved by Belt and Road

Jake's View

Money launderers leave a stench in Hong Kong’s enforcement charade

Hong Kong’s police seized over HK$200 million and detained 59 people during a January operation to crack down on triads and money laundering. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

graphic for online

Hong Kong Monetary Authority mulls using facial recognition and fingerprint technology in ATMs

Security boost follows Macau’s adoption of the technology, amid central government worries over financial crime

Norman Chan said the HKMA was ‘merely studying this new technology’. Photo: Felix Wong

Macau to launch facial recognition and identity card checks for ATMs after withdrawals surpass HK$10 billion a month

Macau ATM withdrawals have surpassed the HK$10 billion a month mark. Photo: Reuters

A picture to show a credit card with UnionPay and VISA Logo together. 25NOV16 SCMP/Martin Chan

HONG KONG - JUNE 26, 2015: Union Pay Card Sign Close Up. Stock photo ID: 294768329

'World's first' facial recognition ATM unveiled in China

Cash machines that can recognise faces will soon be on the market.

Hong Kong ATM users likely to get face scans in move to deter financial crime, source says

Thousands of machines across city expected to be replaced as authorities step up fight against laundering, financial crime and terror funding

The ATM overhaul will see some 3,250 machines equipped with new face scan technology. Photo: AFP/ Philippe Lopez

Business

Companies

Banking & Finance

Money

Wealth

Money News

Markets & Investing

China Business

News

Hong Kong

Hong Kong economy

Opinion

Comment

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Jake's View | Money launderers leave a stench in Hong Kong’s enforcement charade