Elderly Hong Kong housewife who ran prostitution ring must pay back HK$33 million or do 10 more years behind bars
- Heidi Wong was jailed for three years in November after pleading guilty to running illegal racket
- Judge orders her to return immoral earnings or stay in jail well into her 80s
A Hong Kong housewife jailed for running a large-scale prostitution ring with the aid of her two domestic workers must pay back HK$33 million in earnings or face 10 more years in prison.
District judge Amanda Woodcock on Friday issued a confiscation order upon prosecutors’ request against Heidi Wong Pui-ting, the septuagenarian mastermind behind the escort service based in her Mid-Levels luxury flat.
The housewife was jailed last November for three years following her guilty plea to charges of conspiracy to live on the earnings of prostitution of others, and dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence.
The sum of HK$33,189,534.45, to be seized pursuant to Section 8 of the Organised and Serious Crimes Ordinance, covered Wong’s net income and benefit acquired between 2009 and 2018 from her lucrative racket, as recorded in 17 detailed ledgers found by police.
She was ordered to pay up in six months, or serve an additional term of 10 more years.
