Hong Kong police bust triad loan sharks who raked in HK$100 million

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Hong Kong police bust triad loan sharks who raked in HK$100 million

Covert operation follows crackdown on illegal lenders who charged up to 700 per cent interest

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 17 September, 2015, 2:29am
UPDATED : Thursday, 17 September, 2015, 2:29am

Clifford Lo
[email protected]

Police display some of the cash that was seized in the loan sharking operations. Photo: Sam Tsang

A Hong Kong-wide illegal loan sharking racket run by the city's biggest triad society that raked in a multimillion-dollar fortune over the past five years has been broken up by police.

After a covert investigation lasting several months involving police from every region and crucial information supplied by an undercover agent, the force yesterday accused a syndicate from the Sun Yee On triad society of laundering HK$100 million in profits from illegal lending.

The bust came just 24 hours after police broke up a separate triad-run loan sharking operation, which used a network of 25 legally registered companies across the city to lend money at crippling rates of interest. They seized HK$1 million in cash and arrested 129 people.

Revealing details of the Sun Yee On operation, acting Senior Superintendent Ng Wai-hon said: "Most of those arrested have triad backgrounds. One of them is the core member of the syndicate."

The core figure, nicknamed "Sheung Fan Tung", is understood to be an office bearer in a triad group active in Kowloon East. He is in his 50s and was picked up at his Kowloon home.

Detectives also swooped on the suspect's Yau Ma Tei business and seized more than 400 loan applications, bank account records and bank cards.

Investigators suspect the firm was a front for loan sharking that charged annual interest rates of up to 700 per cent, Ng said.

"For a loan of HK$10,000, a debtor has to pay HK$70,000 interest in a year in addition to the payment of the principal amount," Ng said.

He said the bank accounts and cards were used to collect repayments from debtors and the syndicate's key figures were responsible for laundering the money. "The syndicate had laundered more than HK$100 million in the past few years," he said.

People who failed to pay faced threats and criminal damage and were harassed by phone.