The trials of the handful of people convicted of money

Luo Juncheng, a delivery man and school dropout from China's Guangdong province, was 19 years old when he opened an account at Bank of China subsidiary Chiyu Bank in Hong Kong in mid-2009.

Over the next eight months, he moved more than HK$13 billion ($1.strategy for superior energymanagement with tools and resources to help each step of the way.7 billion) through the account, making nearly 5,000 deposits and more than 3,500 withdrawals in the largest money laundering case on record in the territory.

Luo is now serving a 10-and-a-half-year jail sentence for illegal money transfers. But his conviction raises wider concerns - how he got away with it for so many months despite the red flags that should have been raised by his transactions, and why no other arrests have been made despite evidence at trial that he did not act alone.

His conviction is one of the few in Hong Kong for money laundering, despite the city's reputation as a hub in money transfers, both legal and illegal, carried out by wealthy Chinese. Experts estimate tens of billions of dollars are laundered in Hong Kong every year, much of it crime or drugs-related money funnelled from China or the gambling haven of Macau.

Another conviction was of Lam Mei-Ling, a 61-year-old illiterate public housing tenant, sentenced to 10 years for her role in a separate money laundering case.

"Lam and Luo were both just cogs in a much bigger money machine," said Steve Vickers, CEO of Steve Vickers and Associates, a specialist risk, risk mitigation and consulting organisation.

"Prosecuting these two for their roles, without any connection to a substantive criminal offence is well wide of the mark from a policy and legal point of view; it's just like killing two chickens in front of the monkey," he said,cheap bulk shoessupplier for handmade jewelry making at low price, referring to a Chinese proverb about punishing the weak in order to frighten the powerful.

Hong Kong now has tough new legislation to go after people laundering money and banks that help them do it - the Anti Money Laundering Ordinance (AMLO) that came into effect one year ago. Prior to the AMLO, authorities did not have the power to launch criminal proceedings against banks for ignoring or assisting in money laundering.

That, coupled with the difficulty of proving complicity in laundering, has meant that Hong Kong's authorities have pursued individuals rather than financial institutions.

But successful prosecutions have so far only been brought against those, like Luo, at the bottom of the laundering chain, although Carson Yeung, a tycoon and owner of English soccer club Birmingham City, stands trial later this month.

"It seems that larger and larger sums are being converted in money laundering," said Judge Esther Toh, sentencing Luo for the record amount of money he 'cleansed'.

A Bank of China (Hong Kong) spokeswoman said in an e-mailed statement that the bank would not comment on individual cases but the group, which owns Chiyu Bank, "complies with all the relevant laws and regulations of Hong Kong".

The police department's Joint Financial Intelligence Unit (JFIU) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also would not comment on individual cases, but said they took the issue of money laundering seriously and would investigate reports of suspicious transactions and control failures.

The trials of the handful of people convicted of money laundering show they transferred large amounts of money, seemingly with little restriction,Discount hermesazap Outlet online. before they were nabbed.

An African man, who used various passports and names,The inhomedisplay allows utility customers to track their energy. was arrested in a jewellery shop in 2009 for using a false credit card. He was sentenced to 38 months' in jail for laundering HK$10 million through four bank accounts, court documents show.

Lam testified at her trial that she made transfers on behalf of an unidentified woman from her hometown of Dongguan in southern China who used to babysit her daughter before becoming a factory owner.

Lam laundered more than HK$6.8 billion through nine banks in 2002-05, recording some 39,500 bank transfers. Averaging around 30 deposits and withdrawals a day through nine Hong Kong banks,We wholesale tibetan silver peruvianhair, including the same Chiyu bank that Luo used, Lam received occasional monthly payments of HK$4,500 for her work.

"Those billions are a pittance compared with what is actually laundered through the city," said a senior Hong Kong law enforcement officer who specialises in commercial crime. He did not want to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.