Benn Maguire and Tom Orpin-Massey prosecuted the Met Police's Operation Campine at Snaresbrook Crown Court, which saw a gang of seven Chinese nationals convicted of money laundering offences relating to their operation of a unregistered “Chinese underground banking” business.
Chinese citizens cannot transfer more than $50,000 (£38,000) for personal purposes out of the country a year. To help circumvent this, criminals in the UK sell “dirty money” (the profits of crime) to Chinese students and in return the Chinese students pay by transfer in China. The National Crime Agency has observed that this illegal system is “widespread among the Chinese diaspora in the UK”.
Proactive policing offers at Stoke Newington Police Station, led by DC Zach Rowe, conducted two simultaneous warrants. While searching the first address, in London’s Canary Wharf, belonging to Xiaoyu Shu and Yin Ying Wang, they found more than £104,000 in a carrier bag hidden in a wardrobe.The second warrant took place at the address of Yunchen Huang, where multiple cash counting machines and money bags were discovered. Peng Liu and Ang Li were also arrested in London. Officers seized a total of almost £500,000 in assets from the group.
Obtaining WeChat messages between the suspects revealed that they were being led by Qiji Wang and Roulan Chen from Manchester, who were closer to the source of the criminal funds. While searching their shared address they found numerous mobile phones, computers, bank cards in others’ names and a cash counting machine. Crucially, they found ledgers on a desktop computer at the address, which set out the scale of the group’s client base and offending.
In total, the group laundered £55m in cash. They received sentences ranging from 11 months to 12 years.
The case has been reported in the daily mail, the guardian and mylondon news.
Benn Maguire
Tom Orpin-Massey