The Customs and Excise Department of Hong Kong has joined forces with the University of Hong Kong to create a digital tool aimed at tracing cryptocurrency transactions associated with potential money laundering activities.
The announcement was made on June 12 by Assistant Commissioner Mario Wong Ho-yin, who highlighted the need to extend cooperation with academic experts, regional finance professionals, and law enforcement agencies to effectively combat the increasingly sophisticated and cross-border nature of financial crimes.
During a press briefing, Wong emphasized, “The transnational and borderless nature of these money laundering threats means no single agency can combat this issue on its own”, as reported by the South China Morning Post. However, Wong refrained from divulging any specifics about the functioning of the tool, citing confidential elements associated with the department’s operations.
Between 2021 and May 2025, Hong Kong customs noted 39 significant money laundering cases, of which seven were related to cryptocurrencies. Most of these were trade-based laundering operations that disguised unlawful funds as routine transactions.
A notable case involved over 1,000 suspicious transactions totaling 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars (approximately $229 million), spread across five companies and 18 local bank accounts. Three persons were apprehended, with two charged with channeling 760 million Hong Kong dollars via a cryptocurrency platform.
This week, the department and the university also organized a three-day workshop that brought together law enforcement and embassy staff from diverse jurisdictions, including China, India, Iran, New Zealand, Thailand, and Singapore, to enhance cross-border cooperation against digital financial crimes.
In related news, Iurii Gugnin, the founder of cryptocurrency payments platform Evita Pay, was recently detained in New York and indicted on 22 federal charges for allegedly laundering over $530 million from sanctioned Russian banks into the US. The US Department of Justice alleges that Gugnin used stablecoin transactions to assist Russian clients linked to blacklisted institutions, including Sberbank and VTB, in gaining access to American technologies that were otherwise restricted.
The alleged scheme was operational from June 2023 to January 2025, with Gugnin facing charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and running an unlicensed money-transmitting business. If found guilty, he could potentially face a life sentence.
