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Financial regulation
PostMagLong Reads

Hong Kong is trying to shake its reputation as a haven for dirty money, but has it done enough?

  • As the escalating US-China trade war puts Hong Kong in a tight spot, the city has stepped up efforts to put an end to money laundering
  • Much has changed since Mr Clean toted cash-stuffed golf bags, but technological advances haven’t ended the practice

Reading Time:10 minutes
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Each year, an estimated US$2 trillion is laundered around the world, according to the United Nations. How much comes through Hong Kong? Photo: Shutterstock
Jane Moir

Bruce Aitken, aka Mr Clean, had it easy when he trotted around the globe laundering millions of dollars in the late 1970s and 80s. All he needed was a plane ticket and his golf bag.

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Hong Kong-based Aitken, author of the book The Cleaner: The True Story of One of the World’s Most Successful Money Launderers (2017), would fold money end over end, wrap it into squares, stuff it in his bag and get on a plane. Throughout those freewheeling years, when he worked for smuggling operation Deak & Company, he was never once searched at customs.

If bank officials showed an interest in the provenance of the cash, the American would swiftly change the subject to rugby and ask if anyone was up for lunch and a beer. When he arrived back in Hong Kong following trips abroad his banker would roll out the red carpet. “The head cashier was a good friend.”

Fast forward 30 years and Aitken shakes his head when asked how he might go about it today.

“It’s a lot more sophisticated now,” he says. “There is a big industry of compl­iance. Back in the day, our KYC [know your customer] was to cut a dollar bill in half.” Whoever held the other half, that was who you dealt with.

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The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organisation to combat money laundering, will assess Hong Kong this summer. Photo: Shutterstock
The Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental organisation to combat money laundering, will assess Hong Kong this summer. Photo: Shutterstock

Each year, an estimated US$2 trillion is laundered around the world, according to the United Nations. There are no credible figures for Hong Kong, but the government admitted last year that its open financial system means there is a “medium-high” risk of money laundering taking place.

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