HONG KONG (AP) — Carson Yeung says he's a celebrity hairdresser, property developer, casino high-roller and millionaire stock investor. Hong Kong prosecutors say the owner of Birmingham City football club is a money launderer who grossly inflated his income.
The competing portrayals emerged from Yeung's testimony over the past two weeks in his money laundering trial in the Asian financial center. Yeung was a little known Hong Kong businessman until he bought the English team for 81.5 million pounds (then $130 million) in 2009.
Fans have fallen out of love with the club's owner, blaming Yeung for failing to help the team, which dropped out of the Premier League in 2011, since his legal troubles began that same year. They've urged him to accept offers to sell the team, but he has refused.
The Yeung case comes amid growing concern about corruption in Hong Kong, where a number of high profile graft scandals have chipped away at the city's reputation for clean government and traditionally high esteem for tycoons.
Prosecutors say HK$721 million ($93 million) flowed through bank accounts registered to Yeung, 53, and his father from January 2001 to December 2007 even though both reported meager incomes until then. Money from the accounts was used to buy an initial stake in Birmingham City, they said.
Attempting to poke holes in Yeung's story, prosecutors highlighted links to an alleged organized crime leader, suspicious stock transactions, and nearly $8 million in winnings from a Macau casino within two months.
