After more than a year of freezing his Hong Kong bank account, fugitive Chinese businessman Guo Wengui recently decided to appeal to the Hong Kong court, hoping to unfreeze his account.The lawsuit exposed the fact that Guo Wengui was being investigated by the Hong Kong police for money laundering.
On August 13, Guo Wengui applied to the Hong Kong High Court for judicial review regarding the freezing of multiple Hong Kong accounts (hereinafter referred to as series accounts) at DBS Bank.According to court documents obtained by Caixin reporters, Guo Wengui has a total of five company-level bank accounts that have been frozen since July 12, 2017.Calculated according to the exchange rate on the day of freezing, the accumulated amount in the account is equivalent to at least RMB 1.358 billion.
The lawsuit also disclosed Guo Wengui's business relationship with wealthy businessmen in the Middle East.According to court documents, among the frozen funds, a sum of US$93.0314 million (about 633 million yuan) came from the Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund.Guo said in the complaint that the funds were used to pay off debts in an investment agreement between the Guo family and its investment partners in Abu Dhabi.
In July 2017, a reporter from Caixin exposed Guo Wengui’s relationship and business dealings with the royal family of Abu Dhabi.At the end of 2014, Guo Wengui and the Abu Dhabi royal family established the Arab-China Fund in Macau. The fund is actually a platform for Guo to make money overseas.
The plaintiff in this lawsuit is Anton Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Anton Development), a Hong Kong registered company under Guo Wengui, and the defendant is the Commissioner of the Hong Kong Police Force.According to information from the Hong Kong Companies Registry, Anton Development has a registered capital of HK$1 and issues 1 ordinary share.The current sole shareholder and director of Anton Development is Guo Mei.Guo Mei is the daughter of Guo Wengui, according to court documents.
According to court documents, the police accused Guo Wengui, Guo Mei and other five people of conspiring to use personal accounts and other accounts to deal with illegally obtained funds, involving an amount of about 32.92 billion Hong Kong dollars.This behavior violates Article 25 of the Hong Kong Organized and Serious Crime Ordinance, which is an important legal basis for the Hong Kong police to combat money laundering crimes.
In addition to Guo Wengui and his daughter, the police also accused Guo Qiang, Qu Guojiao and Han Chunguang.Guo Qiang is the son of Guo Wengui.According to information from the Hong Kong Company Registry, Qu Guojiao and Han Chunguang both served as directors of Anton Development.According to court documents, Qu Guojiao was arrested by the Hong Kong police on August 3, 2017 on suspicion of money laundering, and was later released on bail by the Hong Kong police.
The Hong Kong police once issued an order to DBS Bank to freeze Guo's series of accounts, and DBS Bank also suspended the operation of Guo's accounts accordingly.The five frozen accounts include two current accounts with unknown balances and three statement savings accounts. The currencies of the three savings accounts are US dollars, Hong Kong dollars and RMB.The amount in the Hong Kong dollar account is about 830 million Hong Kong dollars (about 722 million yuan), the amount in the RMB account is about 3.0122 million yuan, and the funds in the US dollar account are all the above-mentioned Abu Dhabi funds.
Guo Wengui said that if the Abu Dhabi funds can be unfrozen, even if the court issues a restraining order to his Hong Kong dollar account at DBS Bank, he can accept it.A restraining order is a legal order issued by the Court of First Instance generally prohibiting any person from dealing with any realizable asset.
The five accounts involved Anton Development, Hong Kong International Investment Fund Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as HKIFIL) and some affiliated companies.Guo Wengui said in court documents that the companies were registered for members of his family for investment purposes and that the Guo family had interests in the companies.
According to the information from the Hong Kong Companies Registry, HKIFIL was established on October 12, 2016, with an authorized share capital of HK$10,000.When the company was founded, the director was Guo Haoyun, which is another identity of Guo Wengui in Hong Kong.HKIFIL's current sole shareholder and director is also Guo Mei.
Court documents also disclosed the content of emails and correspondence between Anton Development and the Hong Kong police.According to the content of the letter, the Hong Kong police are currently investigating whether Anton Development, HKIFIL and related companies are involved in money laundering crimes.On August 1 and 2, 2017, the Hong Kong police focused on searching the offices of several companies, including Anton Development and HKIFIL.
Guo said that he has repeatedly proposed that he is willing to send representatives of Anton Development to interview the police and assist the police in their investigation.The police did not adopt the relevant opinions and repeatedly requested to interview the beneficial owners of Anton Development.The court documents do not mention Anton Development's beneficial owner status.
In this lawsuit, Guo Wengui raised two challenges regarding the freezing of his bank account by the police.One is to question the basis for the police to issue a freezing order to the bank, which is illegal, unconstitutional, completely unreasonable and oppressive. The other is to question the Hong Kong police for restricting the flow of their own private property without applying for a restraining order to the court.
According to court documents, the basis for the Hong Kong police to issue a freezing order to DBS Bank comes from the no consent regime.This system is an important weapon for the Hong Kong police to identify suspicious financial accounts and combat money laundering and other crimes.When the police, after verification, believe that a certain property is involved in crimes such as money laundering, they will issue a no consent letter to the disposer of the property.The letter is usually valid for 6 months, but can be extended without upper limit.
The legal basis for the letter of disapproval is Article 25 of the Hong Kong Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance, that is, the insider is obliged to report suspicious accounts to the Joint Financial Intelligence Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force, which is responsible for combating money laundering and terrorist financing.After reporting in accordance with the regulations, the insider will not be considered to be related to money laundering; after the police issue a letter of disapproval to the insider, if the insider continues to dispose of the asset, he will not be exempted from the charge of money laundering.
Guo questioned this system in his application for judicial review, arguing that the police have long required banks to freeze accounts without explaining the reasons, which violated the laws on the protection of private property in the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (hereinafter referred to as the Basic Law), and had caused damage to the company.significant financial loss.The Basic Law is the supreme law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and functions as a constitution.However, Hong Kong's High Court ruled in 2015 on another lawsuit over whether the objection system was unconstitutional, ruling that the system did not violate the Basic Law.The judicial system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region adopts the principle of case law and follows precedents as the legal basis. The results of past judgments are legally binding and important references for future judgments.■
