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Carson Yeung pleads not guilty to money laundering charges
Carson Yeung pleads not guilty to money laundering charges
(about 2 hours later)
The Birmingham City owner, Carson Yeung, has pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges as his lawyer asked for the case to be thrown out, the latest wrinkle in a drawn-out legal battle.
The trial of the Birmingham City chairman Carson Yeung for alleged money laundering has begun with his lawyers attempting to have the case dismissed, according to reports from Hong Kong. Yeung, the chairman and a shareholder in Birmingham International Holdings Limited, the club's parent company, is accused of handling approximately HK$720m (£60m) which were the proceeds of crime. He pleaded not guilty to five counts of money laundering, which the prosecution alleges happened between 2001 and 2007, in five separate bank accounts.
Yeung's lawyer, Graham Harris, outlined his arguments for a permanent stay of proceedings to the Hong Kong district court judge Douglas Yau, saying that police delays would result in an unfair trial. He spoke after Yeung pleaded not guilty to five counts of money laundering involving more than 720m Hong Kong dollars (£59.7m).
Yeung's barrister, Graham Harris, applied for the case to be dismissed because, he argued, too much time had passed for Yeung's lawyers to mount his defence.
The charges involve money deposited into bank accounts from January 2001 to December 2007 – before the Hong Kong businessman won a takeover battle for Birmingham City in October 2009 for £81.5m.
Harris said "a significant portion" of Yeung's wealth had been made in "lawful and legitimate stock trading" before 2001. As Hong Kong financial institutions need only hold records for seven years, proof of Yeung's legitimate stock trading could not be produced, he said.
Harris told the judge that police started investigating Yeung's financial transactions in 2008 but did not arrest him until June 2011, 10 years after the alleged wrongdoing began. He said the elapsed time meant that Yeung's lawyers lost the opportunity to obtain documents such as bank statements, stock trading statements and tax returns related to earlier transactions that could help his defence. That is because financial institutions in Hong Kong are only required to hold on to such documents for the previous seven years.
The prosecutor, John Reading, objected to the application, saying the missing papers related only to a small part of the money which is the subject of the prosecution. The judge, his honour Douglas Yau, adjourned the case until Friday when he will rule on whether the trial should continue.
"These five charges are unfair," Harris said. "The accused and the legal team, through no fault of their own, have been denied the opportunity to access documentary material which may support the accused's position. In all circumstances, it would be unfair for the accused to be tried."
City, already relegated from the Premier League in May 2011, have been in turmoil and financial difficulties since Yeung was arrested in Hong Kong the following month and charged with money laundering. He had led the £81.5m takeover of the club in 2009, and owns a 25.4% stake in BIHL.
Yeung's application, on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial, follows several delaying attempts. In March, his lawyers unsuccessfully asked for the case to be moved to the high court for a jury trial. Last year they won a request to delay the trial's scheduled November start so they could have more time to prepare.
A former hairdresser who has been reported to have made his millions in investments and a Macau casino, Yeung has loaned the club £14m. City's 2011-12 accounts included a statement addressing the question of whether the Hong Kong prosecutors could seek to reclaim that money if Yeung is found guilty. "The directors have not received any information to suggest that funding provided to BCFC by Carson Yeung … was sourced from money-laundered funds," the statement said.
Harris said documentation has been lost or destroyed for transactions at eight stock brokerages, mostly involving withdrawals. But the prosecutor, John Reading, said his aim was to establish the source of the money, which he alleged were "criminal proceeds", and because the brokerages were not the source, the transactions were not relevant. Reading said there was "nothing to suggest" Yeung would receive an unfair trial.
The three directors are Yeung himself, his 19-year-old son Ryan, and Peter Pannu, the club's acting chairman, who has been involved since the BIHL takeover.
Birmingham City won the 2011 League Cup, ending 48 years without a major trophy, but despite the victory were relegated from the Premier League the same year.
Before his takeover of the club, Yeung was a little-known businessman who reportedly invested in a Macau casino and owned a stake in a Hong Kong newspaper. His only previous experience with professional football consisted of a stint as the chairman of Hong Kong Rangers from 2005-06.
