Hong Kong Customs mounted an anti-illicit cigarette enforcement operation today (November 19) and raided three suspected illicit cigarette sales outlets, including two newsstands in Kwai Fong and Tsuen Wan, as well as one store in Tsuen Wan, seizing a total of about 3 800 suspected illicit cigarettes with an estimated market value of about $17,000 and a duty potential of about $13,000. Three persons were arrested.      According to the amended Dutiable Commodities Ordinance

​The Department of Health (DH) announced today (November 20) that, starting from January 1, 2026, it will launch a pilot programme to streamline the evaluation and approval process for proprietary Chinese medicines (pCm) registration applications. Along with the existing processing procedures, two new tiers will be introduced, namely "Innovative Drugs" and "Designated Priority Products", with specified target processing times. The new arrangement aims to expedite processing o

Hong Kong Customs conducted a three-week enforcement operation codenamed "Nunchaku" from October 20 to November 14 to specifically combat counterfeit and infringing goods activities involving cross-boundary transshipments and local deliveries during the Double 11 Festival shopping period. During the operation, Customs detected 29 related cases and seized a total of 120 000 suspected counterfeit goods, with a total estimated market value of about $65 million. Amid the hug

A money service operator license holder was convicted by the Eastern Magistrates' Courts on November 4 for failing to comply with customer due diligence and record-keeping requirements, and providing false or misleading documents to Customs officers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Ordinance). The company was fined a total of $328,000, the highest fine on record among similar cases.      During a compliance inspection in March last y

The Government published in the Gazette today (September 5) the Banking (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 (Commencement) Notice to appoint November 3 as the commencement date for the Banking (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 (23 of 2025) (the Ordinance) to come into operation.      The Ordinance was gazetted on June 13. The Ordinance introduces a voluntary mechanism for banks and relevant law enforcement agencies to share with each other, swiftly and safely via electronic means, informatio

Following an operation codenamed “Heron” and seeking legal advice after conducting an intensive investigation which revealed that a syndicate engaged in the illegal sale of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) had allegedly delivered e-cigarettes and vaping products to customers through corrupt means, the ICAC today (October 13) charged eight people, including the mastermind of the syndicate and staff members of a logistics company, with total bribes amounting to about $370,0

The ICAC charged six individuals on Monday (October 6) after a corruption investigation revealed that a Police Sergeant, together with an insurance agent, had recruited his family members, friends and Police colleagues to pose as dummy insurance agents and policyholders to take out 20 bogus insurance policies using false information to deceive two insurers into releasing payments of commissions, bonuses and allowances totalling about $3 million. Lam Hin-ho, 36, Police Sergean

A former bank employee and an intermediary were charged by the ICAC yesterday (October 2) for allegedly conspiring together to accept bribes totalling over RMB13,000, i.e., about HK$15,000, for assisting clients of the intermediary to open bank accounts. Similarly, the bank employee had allegedly offered bribes to a colleague, but his offer was rejected. Chan Chun-hei, 30, then senior universal banker of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC); and Zhang