Security chiefs recently gave a 'rough indicator' of Hong Kong's money-laundering problem. They indicated 73 money-laundering investigations are on-going.
These involve HK$4.9 billion in suspected dirty cash but the likelihood of prosecuting the culprits, based on past experience, is minimal.
The number of financial institutions, accountants or lawyers likely to feel the long arm of the law for their part in facilitating a laundering spree - nil.
Hong Kong is in somewhat of a rut. It has laws in place to clamp down on money-laundering - for which it receives regular pats on the back from international agencies - but putting them into action has proved difficult.
So difficult in fact that the SAR faces the prospect of being blacklisted by the same anti-laundering agencies which once sang its praises, according to Commissioner for Narcotics Clarie Lo Ku Ka-lee.
Such a warning from a high-ranking official should serve as a major wake-up call, and it is somewhat ironic that Hong Kong will this summer take up the chair of the Financial Action Taskforce on Money Laundering (FATF) for a year.