Hong Kong police smashed a money laundering group using virtual asset exchange shops, involving a total amount of HK$118 million

Planet Daily News: Hong Kong police launched the "Night Raid" operation to dismantle a cross-border money laundering criminal group active in mainland China and Hong Kong. The money laundering group recruited mainland individuals to open bank accounts related to fraud cases, who were then arranged to withdraw cash and exchange it for cryptocurrencies at virtual asset exchange shops to launder money. The operation resulted in the arrest of 12 men and women, involving criminal proceeds of 118 million Hong Kong dollars. Senior Inspector Lo Wan-shan from the Commercial Crime Investigation Bureau's Fraud Investigation Team stated that between July 2024 and May 2025, the criminal group recruited mainland individuals as puppet account holders, primarily used to receive proceeds from various types of fraud cases. During this period, they used over 500 bank accounts to launder 118 million dollars. Among these, 10 million dollars have been confirmed as proceeds from 58 reported fraud cases, in which victims suffered losses of approximately 43.2 million dollars. (Hong Kong Commercial Report)