Blues chief ‘laundered millions’ in accounts

Prosecutor John Reading outlined his case as the trial began in earnest.

Hong Kong District Court Judge Douglas Yau had dismissed a last-ditch attempt to have the case dismissed on the grounds Yeung would not receive a fair trial.

He denies five counts of money laundering involving more than 720m Hong Kong dollars (£59.2m). The charges involve money deposited into bank accounts from January 2001 to December 2007 – years before he won a takeover battle for Birmingham City in October 2009 for £81.5m.

Mr Reading said over the seven years, money was deposited into and then withdrawn from five bank accounts held by Yeung and his father, Yeung Chung.

He added that Yeung essentially controlled his father’s accounts.

The transactions included 437 cash deposits totalling HK97.5m dollars (£8.1m), cheques from a Macau casino company and deposits from and withdrawals to stockbrokerages.

“Almost all of the cash deposits were made by unknown parties without any apparent reason for such deposits,” Mr Reading told the court.

The amount of money involved was more than 300 times the father and son’s combined reported income of HK2.2m dollars (£179,000) from 1999 to 2006, he said. From 1997 to 1999, Yeung earned HK335,299 dollars (£27,800) from his Kowloon hair salon while his father was a caretaker living in public housing.

From 1999 to 2003, neither reported any income.

Yeung’s father was also sought by police on an arrest warrant but he has since died in mainland China, the court was told.

Reading said that when Yeung’s company bought 30 per cent of Birmingham City in 2007, about HK84m dollars (£7m) of the asking price “was paid personally from the bank accounts” to a British law firm.