Hotel manager jailed over Thai prostitution ring
SingTao · 2 SOURCES1 day ago10 MIN
Summary
A 49-year-old hotel food-and-beverage deputy manager, Liu Chi-tung (廖志東), was sentenced in the District Court to 27 months in prison after pleading guilty to one count of bringing another person into Hong Kong for prostitution and two counts of money laundering. The case centered on arrangements made during the Covid-19 period in 2022, when inbound travellers were still subject to compulsory hotel quarantine after arriving in Hong Kong. Prosecutors said he arranged for 13 Thai women to come to Hong Kong for sex work and used two bank accounts to handle about HK$1.67 million in criminal proceeds. Deputy District Judge Lai Kim-wah said the defendant had taken an active part in the operation, but rejected the prosecution's application for a sentencing uplift.
Key Points
- The defendant admitted one trafficking-related offence and two money-laundering charges at the District Court on September 21, and was jailed for 27 months.
- Between May 29 and September 3, 2022, he used a credit card to buy air tickets for himself and 13 Thai women.
- After the women arrived and completed hotel quarantine, he later took them to Fa Lee Building, where police mounted undercover operations.
- In an undercover operation on September 16, a Thai woman allegedly offered sex services for HK$500 and accepted marked banknotes from an officer.
- Police arrested the defendant on September 22 in Yau Ma Tei, seizing cash, two marked notes, and a laptop file titled “Monthly Profit and Loss”
- The court heard that police carried out further undercover operations on September 20 and September 22 at a unit on the eighth floor of Fa Lee Building. During the September 22 arrest at a Yau Ma Tei flat, officers found two bundles of cash totaling about HK$25,000 on a table, another roughly HK$84,000 in a drawer, and two marked banknotes linked to the operation. Investigators also found a laptop document named “Monthly Profit and Loss”, which formed part of the evidence in the case
- Under caution, the defendant admitted the two cash bundles were criminal proceeds belonging to him and said he had been paid for helping the Thai women buy air tickets or book hotels. He also told police he had acted on the instructions of a man known as “Fat Lung” and had gone to Fa Lee Building multiple times during the period in question. Bank records showed that deposits into his HSBC account were only in the five-figure range from January to May 2022, but rose sharply from June to September, when the account handled HK$1.47 million through 166 deposits and withdrawals. His Bank of China account also processed about HK$200,000.
- In mitigation, the defence said the defendant had no previous convictions and had returned to Thailand with his Thai wife during the pandemic, later planning to relocate there, before offending to make “quick money”. The defence also argued there was no exploitation, coercion or detention of the Thai women, and that no minors were involved. Judge Lai said the case did not involve minors, coercion or exploitation, but found the defendant had still played an active role by booking flights and hotels, personally accompanying the women to Hong Kong, visiting the building to handle matters, and using his own accounts to conceal prostitution proceeds by withdrawing most of the money quickly. The judge nevertheless refused the prosecution's request for a harsher sentence, saying the money-laundering authorities cited by the prosecution concerned fraud cases and did not establish the prevalence of prostitution offences or their social harm in this case.
Why It Matters
The case shows how cross-border vice operations could still be organized during pandemic travel controls by using quarantine hotels, commercial flights and personal bank accounts to move people and money. For Hong Kong readers, the ruling also underlines that sentencing in money-laundering cases will turn on the prosecution's evidence about the underlying crime, not only on the amount of money handled