Hong Kong Customs mounted enforcement operations to combat illicit cigarette smuggling activities involving air passengers and shut down related illicit cigarette storage centres between September and December, successfully neutralising a transnational syndicate that smuggled illicit cigarettes through air passengers. A total of about 11.64 million illicit cigarettes and 1.4 million alternative smoking products were seized, with an estimated market value of about $56.5 millio

​The General Assembly of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), at its 85th session, decided on the establishment of the UNIDROIT Asia-Pacific Liaison Office in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People's Republic of China. The Office is expected to open at the Hong Kong Legal Hub in the second half of 2026, as part of UNIDROIT's centenary celebration next year.       The proposal for the establishment of the Office

The Eastern Magistrates’ Courts today sentenced Mr Choi Chun Wai, a former Vice President of Computershare Hong Kong Investor Services Limited (Computershare) to two months of imprisonment after he was convicted of insider dealing in the shares of ENM Holdings Limited (ENM) (Notes 1 to 3). Choi was ordered to pay a fine of $289,500, which is equivalent to the losses he had avoided when dealing in the ENM shares. The Court also ordered him to pay the Securities and Futures Com

Hong Kong’s capital markets made significant progress in deepening market connectivity while driving financial innovation and diversification, according to the Securities and Futures Commission’s (SFC) July-September 2025 Quarterly Report  published today.   The city has continued to bolster its super-connector role through deeper connections with both overseas and Mainland markets. Globally, the SFC has signed a total of six memoranda of understanding so far this year, inclu

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has obtained a court order, by consent between the SFC and Mr Ng Kwok Fai, from the Court of First Instance to freeze more than $101 million in cash in the personal bank account of Ng, a suspected shadow director of Teamway International Group Holdings Limited (Teamway), in legal proceedings under section 214 of the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) over alleged corporate misconduct (Note 1). This came after Ng and others agree

The NCA have identified that a billion-dollar money laundering network active in the UK purchased a bank in Kyrgyzstan to facilitate sanctions evasion and payments in support of Russian military efforts. Through Operation Destabilise, the NCA and its partners are targeting money launderers who work for this network and are known to operate in at least 28 UK cities and towns. For a fee, the launderers collect ‘dirty’ cash generated from the drugs trade, firearms supply, and or

On 3 December, the European Commission added Russia to the EU’s list of high-risk countries – commonly referred to as the ‘blacklist’ – deemed to have strategic deficiencies in their frameworks for countering financial crime. The decision will formally enter into force within two months of publication unless overturned by the European Parliament or the European Council. Russia was subjected to restrictions even though it is not listed by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

To combat criminal syndicates recruiting bank account holders to rent or sell their accounts for money laundering purposes, the Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB) partnered with Alipay to disseminate anti-money laundering (AML) messages to Chinese Mainland users through the Alipay Mobile Application (App). Starting from September 29, the Alipay App displays a pop-up message to Chinese Mainland users upon their arrival in Hong Kong, outlining the severe leg