Editorial | Cooperate to tackle Hong Kong money laundering
US allegations against Hong Kong are not only misguided but also counterproductive to battling a crime that recognises no borders
Hong Kong has again found itself caught in the crosshairs of the US Congress. This time the volley came from lawmakers who last month urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to rethink relations with the city’s banking sector and claimed it was becoming a hub for money laundering.
City officials can be forgiven for bristling at the misguided and counterproductive charge.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok, speaking at an international forum against money laundering two weeks later, rightly dismissed “misconceived” comments about Hong Kong made by unnamed foreign politicians. He should not need to do so.
Indeed, the city is hard at work combating money laundering, which relies on international cooperation to be effective. Lam spoke of two cases of working with foreign jurisdictions.
A request from an East Asian country led to the freezing of US$20 million in cryptocurrency from an alleged fraud. Another held up more than US$8 million in assets for an Indonesian fraud victim.
