The defendant was charged with six charges of money laundering of sums totalling HK$48,109,291.61.
After a 10-day trial, the Court (HHJ Tam) acquitted the defendant of all six charges, holding that any reasonable person who shared the defendant’s knowledge would not be bound to believe that the property was tainted (§197).
The Court noted that there were four distinct features in the case (§175).
First, the defendant’s husband had become a Form 8 recognizance holder (§175(ii)). According to the defendant’s understanding, the husband could not hold a bank account. This was the reason why the defendant lent her accounts to the husband for his use. The Court held that in a normal case where a woman lent her accounts to her husband for use, without more, this would probably have been unacceptable in the eyes of the court. However, this case was different with the addition of the Form 8 element (§180).
Second, the husband was a Muslim (§175(i)). In a normal case, a wife would probably be expected to raise questions about large amounts going in and out of her accounts, which were lent to her husband for use. However, here, the special feature of the Muslim culture came in. The defendant’s evidence was that a wife does not discuss the business of the husband, that the husband makes a living, and the wife cares for the home (§181).
Third, the relevant facts happened a long time ago (§175(iii)). There were times when the defendant was not able to remember the exact source of funds and what the withdrawn cash was used for. But this had to be measured against the time that had elapsed since, i.e. between 8 and 15 years (§183). The Court also accepted that the husband provided a plausible explanation of how he was not able to obtain the relevant documents from previous investment partners because of the lapse of time (§191).
Fourth, the Pakistani culture (§175(iv)). The defendant’s husband, being the youngest son, enjoyed the love of the extended family in the Pakistani culture. Whenever he needed extra money, he could rely on his father and brother who controlled the family wealth in Pakistan. This explained at least part of the sources of cash that was coming into the bank accounts (§190).
Overall, the defendant and her husband gave credible defence evidence corroborated by testimony of other independent witnesses at trial.
Wayne Walsh SC leading Fergus Tam instructed by Lee Law Firm, acted for the defendant.
For Wayne’s full profile, see here
For Fergus’ full profile, see here
The reasons for verdict of HHJ Tam [2026] HKDC 407 dated 4 March 2026 can be found here
