A Hong Kong family is on trail in Hong Kong’s High Court this week, accused of laundering $40 million allegedly defrauded from cosmetics retailer Bonjour Holdings.
According to details of the trial published by the South China Morning Post, a family of three is accused of laundering the cash, that a mother and son had conspired to steal.
Prosecutor Newman Wong Hing-wai told the court that the family used inflated salaries and 35 identities, including those of 22 former or serving staff, to channel company funds into their personal accounts between 2004 and 2011.
He said about $27 million was transferred to the father, even though he had never worked for the company.
Wong said the alleged offences were uncovered in March 2011, when a Bonjour executive noticed a new staff member from another department was being paid unusually well for a human resources officer. A subsequent investigation found that people who had never worked for the company were getting money from the company and people who worked for the company were getting more than they should have, he said.
“And then there are these people whose names don’t match with the accounts.”
Full coverage of the trial can be read here on the South China Morning Post.