A former VIP gambling room manager at the Casino Lisboa has been convicted of laundering the proceeds from a Macau-based HK$400 million illegal horse-race betting operation through Hong Kong bank accounts.
Yeung Chun-pong, 57, is a former business partner of Stanley Ho Hung-sun, Ho's fourth wife Angela Leong On-kei, New World Development chairman Cheng Yu-tung and Macau Jockey Club (MJC) managing director Li Chi-keung, according to court documents and Companies Registry filings.
Yeung pleaded guilty in the District Court yesterday following a six-year legal battle that twice went all the way to the Court of Final Appeal.
The court heard how Yeung and collaborators laundered HK$400 million from illegal bets on MJC and Hong Kong Jockey Club races between 1998 and 2000, moving the money from Macau to a pair of Hang Seng Bank accounts in Hong Kong registered to Yeung's wife Tse Kwai-ching and her sister Tse May-wah.
The sisters pleaded not guilty while a fourth person who helped Yeung, Chik Kam-fai, pleaded guilty to money laundering. Given the guilty pleas by Yeung and Chik, charges against the Tse sisters were 'left to lie on file', effectively meaning the pair would not be prosecuted further.
The court heard how Yeung rose from helping out his family's vegetable market business to working as a sales agent in the 1990s at Onshine Securities. He and his wife acquired a 5 per cent stake in Onshine alongside fellow shareholders Leong and Li, both of whom served as directors of the firm, as did Yeung's wife.