New trial date set for HK football tycoon
Source: AFP |
November 29, 2012, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A JUDGE in Hong Kong has granted Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung's request to postpone his trial on money laundering charges.
Douglas Yau adjourned the trial, due to start yesterday, until April 29.
Yeung's newly appointed lawyer, Joseph Tse, argued that more time was needed to prepare for the case which involves five counts of money laundering involving more than HK$720 million (US$92 million).
The court heard that five other lawyers had tried and failed to unfreeze Yeung's assets so he could pay for his defense. Tse says he has managed to raise money from an alternative source, The Associated Press reported.
The case is set to put the 52-year-old football tycoon's wealth under an intense spotlight and will probe the former hairdresser's rags-to-riches rise and his ownership of the English football club.
His lawyer is confident he can prove the businessman was already a wealthy man before the alleged offences occurred.
"The prosecution's allegation is simply the fact that he was a hairdresser and now he has so much money," Tse told the court yesterday.
"Before 2001 he and his father were people of affluence. They had wealth and assets in China," Tse said, adding that they had owned a hotel on the Chinese mainland.
Relatively unknown before his emergence in English football, Yeung maintained a low profile even after he took control of Birmingham in 2009 in an 81 million pound (US$130 million) takeover.
Media reports have described how Yeung made his first fortune on cheap stocks, then increased his earnings by co-founding Greek Mythology, a casino in Macau, in 2004. He was prosecuted by Hong Kong's financial regulator for failing to disclose his holdings in a company in the same year and ordered to pay a small fine.
His other business interests include investments in "apparel sourcing trading, entertainment and media services" through Birmingham International Holdings, according to the firm's listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website.
Birmingham International Holdings, controlled by Yeung, is the parent company of Birmingham City.
The prosecution is said to be planning to call 19 witnesses when the trial starts next year, and 25 days have been set aside for the proceedings.
Yeung was arrested and charged in June last year with five counts of "dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence." He has not entered a plea.
Prosecutors have said that about HK$720 million passed through accounts connected to him between 2001 and 2007, although details of the allegations remain unclear.
Douglas Yau adjourned the trial, due to start yesterday, until April 29.
Yeung's newly appointed lawyer, Joseph Tse, argued that more time was needed to prepare for the case which involves five counts of money laundering involving more than HK$720 million (US$92 million).
The court heard that five other lawyers had tried and failed to unfreeze Yeung's assets so he could pay for his defense. Tse says he has managed to raise money from an alternative source, The Associated Press reported.
The case is set to put the 52-year-old football tycoon's wealth under an intense spotlight and will probe the former hairdresser's rags-to-riches rise and his ownership of the English football club.
His lawyer is confident he can prove the businessman was already a wealthy man before the alleged offences occurred.
"The prosecution's allegation is simply the fact that he was a hairdresser and now he has so much money," Tse told the court yesterday.
"Before 2001 he and his father were people of affluence. They had wealth and assets in China," Tse said, adding that they had owned a hotel on the Chinese mainland.
Relatively unknown before his emergence in English football, Yeung maintained a low profile even after he took control of Birmingham in 2009 in an 81 million pound (US$130 million) takeover.
Media reports have described how Yeung made his first fortune on cheap stocks, then increased his earnings by co-founding Greek Mythology, a casino in Macau, in 2004. He was prosecuted by Hong Kong's financial regulator for failing to disclose his holdings in a company in the same year and ordered to pay a small fine.
His other business interests include investments in "apparel sourcing trading, entertainment and media services" through Birmingham International Holdings, according to the firm's listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange website.
Birmingham International Holdings, controlled by Yeung, is the parent company of Birmingham City.
The prosecution is said to be planning to call 19 witnesses when the trial starts next year, and 25 days have been set aside for the proceedings.
Yeung was arrested and charged in June last year with five counts of "dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence." He has not entered a plea.
Prosecutors have said that about HK$720 million passed through accounts connected to him between 2001 and 2007, although details of the allegations remain unclear.
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