Man jailed for 11 months for providing account used to dupe Tai Po fire donors

A Hong Kong man has been jailed for 11 months and fined HK$4,500 (US$574) for selling his digital wallet so it could be used by a crime syndicate to receive HK$25,500 defrauded from donors, who believed the money would be used to help victims of the Tai Po fire.

West Kowloon Court heard on Thursday that Cham Shu-shing, a 32-year-old cook, had sold his Alipay account to an unknown group of scammers last year for HK$3,800, knowing it would be used for illegal purposes.

A police investigation revealed the wallet was used to handle HK$64,886.45 in illegal proceeds between October 25 and November 30.

The victims included four people who sent a total of HK$25,500 to the account after seeing a social media post calling for donations to help residents of Wang Fuk Court, whose homes were destroyed in a deadly fire last November.

The wallet had 46 deposit and 48 withdrawal records between October 25 and November 30. Only HK$6.83 was left in the account a day before it was suspended on December 1.

Cham pleaded guilty to a count of money laundering before Principal Magistrate Don So Man-lung.

The defence said in mitigation that the defendant, a father of one, was unemployed at the time and needed to earn some quick cash.