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Justice Minister Paul Lam Ting-kwok revealed on Tuesday that the city had frozen $20 million worth of cryptocurrencies from alleged fraud proceeds at the request of an East Asian country. It had also recently seized more than $8 million in assets for an Indonesian fraud victim, with the cooperation of foreign jurisdictions.
Lam used the opening of an international anti-money laundering forum to hit back at “misconceived” comments from unnamed foreign politicians about Hong Kong.
“We are not obliged, and we do not, to implement unilateral sanctions imposed by other countries that violate both international law and basic norms of international relations,” Lam said.
He added that the city had secured punitive measures from the UN Security Council to meet its international obligations.
Lam’s comments came two weeks after US lawmakers urged US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to reevaluate the country’s treatment of Hong Kong’s banks and accused the city of becoming a money laundering center and authoritarian to help countries avoid sanctions.
The lawmakers said Hong Kong has become a “world leader” in practices such as importing and re-exporting banned Western technology to Russia, buying blocked Iranian oil, facilitating the trade of gold from Russia and operating “ghost ships” who trade illegally with North Korea.
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