A Hong Kong court has sentenced former China Construction Bank (Asia) relationship manager Lam Chun-yin to four years in prison after he admitted taking more than $470,000 in Tether to authenticate forged bank documents. The instruments carried a stated value of more than $1.6 billion, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Lam, 32, worked in consumer banking at a retail branch in Causeway Bay. The ICAC said his role did not involve letters of credit, and the bank had never authorized him to handle such documents.

Forgery scheme ran in 2022

According to the ICAC, the conduct took place between April and June 2022, when Lam conspired with a Vesttoo department head and other associates to accept bribes paid in USDT.

Investigators said Lam authenticated multiple standby letters of credit that falsely purported to have been issued by CCB (Asia). He also authenticated two collateral letters that falsely claimed to be issued by Yu Po and endorsed by that company.

Bank says documents were not genuine

The case came to light after an internal investigation by CCB (Asia). The bank later filed a corruption complaint with the ICAC and provided full assistance to the inquiry.

The anti-corruption agency said its investigation found that neither CCB nor its sister companies had issued any of the standby letters of credit or collateral letters involved in the case.

Sentence and repayment order

Judge Ernest Lin Kam-hung set six years as the starting point for sentencing and reduced the term by one third because Lam pleaded guilty. That resulted in a four-year jail sentence.

The court also ordered Lam to repay about HK$3.7 million to CCB (Asia), an amount matching the bribes identified in the case.

Crypto used to route payments

The ICAC said the people involved tried to conceal the arrangement by channeling the bribe payments indirectly through cryptocurrency rather than paying Lam in a direct and transparent manner.

The agency has also applied to the court for arrest warrants for other people implicated in the scheme. That means the case may continue beyond Lam's sentencing as authorities pursue additional suspects.

Source: beincrypto.com