Birmingham's Yeung on laundering
charge By Olivia Chung
HING KONG - Hairdresser turned tycoon
Carson Yeung Ka-sing, the owner of recently
relegated English football club Birmingham City,
was charged in Hong Kong on Thursday with money
laundering to a value of US$93 million.
Yeung, 51, entered no plea when he
appeared in court wearing a blazer sporting
Birmingham City’s logo.
Yeung was charged
with five counts of dealing in property worth more
than HK$721 million (US$93 million) "known or
believed to represent proceeds of an indictable
offence", according to a charge sheet. The court
heard that Yeung operated five bank
accounts to make transactions
suspected to be involved in money laundering. Two
of the accounts were in the name of Yeung’s
father.
He was released on bail until the
next hearing on August 11. Yeung was granted cash
bail of HK$4 million, and a cash surety of HK$4
million from Victor Ma, the managing director of
Sing Pao newspaper, and Vico Hui, the executive
chairman and chief executive of Birmingham
International Holdings Ltd (BIHL), which owns
Birmingham City. He was ordered to surrender all
travel documents and report to the police.
Yeung's assets include a HK$400 million
house in Hong Kong’s Peak district, the court was
told. Yeung was arrested by narcotics bureau
investigators at his Peak home on Wednesday.
The offences allegedly took place over
seven years - from January 2, 2001, to December
31, 2007 - in Hong Kong.
The prosecutor
asked for Yeung to be remanded in custody, fearing
that he would leave Hong Kong, but Daniel Marash,
the defendant's lawyer, said the prosecution had
failed to provide evidence the money in the bank
accounts was from indictable offences. Marash said
Yeung is a famous businessman and he and his
family are in Hong Kong and he has no reason to
flee.
Money laundering carries jail
sentences of up to 14 years and fines of up to
HK$5 million.
Trading in Hong Kong-listed
BIHL, a professional football operator and
entertainment services provider with a market
capitalization of about HK$550 million, was
suspended on Thursday pending a statement. The
shares closed at HK$0.154 on Wednesday, down from
HK$0.52 last July.
Vico Hui said outside
the court that the charges only target Yeung and
have nothing to do with the operation of the BIHL
or the club.
The Football League said in
at statement on its website on Thursday that Yeung
is assisting police in Hong Kong in relation to
criminal investigations being carried out in his
homeland.
A statement by Birmingham's
acting chairman and former Hong Kong policeman
Peter Pannu on the club’s website said that at
this stage it was believed the case had no
connection "to the operation of the parent company
[BIHL] or any of its subsidiaries". A
hairdresser in his earlier years, Yeung built a
single hairdressing salon into a chain of stores,
moved into fashion and on to other businesses in
China including a coal mine, a gold mine, water
supply and a property business. He once told a
press conference: "I have so many businesses that
I cannot remember how many I [have had.]"
A Macau casino was among his interests.
The South China Morning Post in 2009 quoted
sources as saying Yeung made a significant profit
dealing in shares of A-Max Holdings, which bought
a 49.9% stake in Macau's Greek Mythology casino in
March 2006. In June 2007, Hong Kong's Ming Pao
newspaper reported that Yeung was part owner of
Greek Mythology.
Yeung entered the Hong
Kong exchange record books with a 2007 investment
in Grandtop International, a small loss-making
apparel firm, paying HK$65.66 million for a 16.67%
controlling stake.
In the same year, he
made his first, and failed, bid for Birmingham
City. He was more successful in 2009, paying
HK$731 million to acquire 94% of the shares of the
English Midlands club through Grandtop
International, which was later renamed Birmingham
International Holdings Ltd.
Among Yeung’s
other interests, he is a major shareholder of the
Sing Pao Daily News after emerging in 2008 as a
white knight investor in an ailing Hong Kong
newspaper group, SMI Publishing Group.
Editor-in-chief Ngai Kai-kwong said Yeung is
seldom involved in the editorial and business
operations.
Birmingham City this year beat
the much more fancied and famous Arsenal 2-1 to
win the League Cup at London’s Wembley Stadium on
February 27 - Yeung’s 51st birthday - ending a
48-year run without a trophy. By the end of the
season, however, the club was relegated from the
top-flight Premier League, which means a loss of
broadcasting fees and possible loss of marketing
deals. The club was dealt a further blow two weeks
ago, when manager Alex McLeish left to take over
at Premier League side Aston Villa.
In
March, Yeung pledged his private properties to
lenders in a bid to raise funds for the club,
whose liabilities exceed its assets by HK$348
million, according to a BIHL statement. In April,
he increased his personal stake in the club to
24.9% after acquiring 315 million BIHL shares,
according to a statement to the Hong Kong Stock
Exchange at the time.
In 2004, Yeung was
reprimanded by Hong Kong Securities and Futures
Commission (SFC) for failing to disclose his
holdings in Cedar Base Electronic (Group), now
known as China Water Affairs Group. The securities
watchdog found that he held 25% of Cedar Base on
June 1, 2001, and on four other occasions had
interests consisting of more than 20% of the firm.
He pleaded guilty and was fined HK$43,000
and ordered to pay the SFC's investigation costs
of HK$7,398.
Olivia Chung is a
senior Asia Times Online reporter.
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