HONG KONG, Jun 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong hairdresser-turned-tycoon Carson Yeung, who hit the headlines when he bought English soccer club Birmingham city two years ago, is in the news again—this time being charged in a Hong Kong district court for money laundering.
The 51-year-old businessman, who having spent time in Britain as a teenager started off on the road to riches as a hairdresser in Hong Kong’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui shopping belt, was held overnight in police custody.
On Thursday, he was charged with five counts of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence” totalling some HK$721 million ($92.6 million), according to a statement by the Hong Kong magistrate court.
Yeung showed up in court on Thursday morning in a dark suit and peach-coloured shirt and was ordered to have his passport confiscated.
He was released on bail of HK$7 million, with HK$4 million from himself and the remaining split between two of his associates .
The tycoon remained silent throughout his court appearance and spoke only once to request that he be allowed to present himself at a particular police station in Central district when the court ordered him to report to police three times a week.
The magnate turned heads in 2009 when he put down HK$1.2 billion to become Birmingham’s single-largest shareholder.
The following year he was seen standing alongside senior Communist Party officials during a friendly between Birmingham and a Chinese team in Beijing’s “birds nest” stadium.
During the Birmingham buyout, Yeung famously said he wanted to turn the English club into “a Chinese-English soccer club”.
Yeung showed his business acumen early on when he opened his own hair salon in 1994, but had his fingers burnt when Hong Kong’s property boom went bust three years later, soon after he had invested in two apartments and nearly a dozen parking lots.
Yeung was undeterred, however, and struck his first big pot of gold when he teamed up in 2004 with Ng Man Sun, the founder of Macau’s Greek Mythology luxury casino, to bet on Macau casino stocks.
Yeung, whose wealth is estimated at HK$1.86 billion, is now also a major shareholder and chairman of Sing Pao daily news - a Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper he saved with a HK$60 million bailout loan in 2008 when it ran into financial difficulty.
Seen as a “very generous person” by acquaintances, Yeung lives with his partner and two children in a 6,000 square-foot mansion in Hong Kong’s rarefied Peak district.
Among his fleet of cars is a HK$6 million Maybach.
($1 = HK$7.783)
The 51-year-old businessman, who having spent time in Britain as a teenager started off on the road to riches as a hairdresser in Hong Kong’s bustling Tsim Sha Tsui shopping belt, was held overnight in police custody.
On Thursday, he was charged with five counts of “dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of an indictable offence” totalling some HK$721 million ($92.6 million), according to a statement by the Hong Kong magistrate court.
Yeung showed up in court on Thursday morning in a dark suit and peach-coloured shirt and was ordered to have his passport confiscated.
He was released on bail of HK$7 million, with HK$4 million from himself and the remaining split between two of his associates .
The tycoon remained silent throughout his court appearance and spoke only once to request that he be allowed to present himself at a particular police station in Central district when the court ordered him to report to police three times a week.
The magnate turned heads in 2009 when he put down HK$1.2 billion to become Birmingham’s single-largest shareholder.
The following year he was seen standing alongside senior Communist Party officials during a friendly between Birmingham and a Chinese team in Beijing’s “birds nest” stadium.
During the Birmingham buyout, Yeung famously said he wanted to turn the English club into “a Chinese-English soccer club”.
Yeung showed his business acumen early on when he opened his own hair salon in 1994, but had his fingers burnt when Hong Kong’s property boom went bust three years later, soon after he had invested in two apartments and nearly a dozen parking lots.
Yeung was undeterred, however, and struck his first big pot of gold when he teamed up in 2004 with Ng Man Sun, the founder of Macau’s Greek Mythology luxury casino, to bet on Macau casino stocks.
Yeung, whose wealth is estimated at HK$1.86 billion, is now also a major shareholder and chairman of Sing Pao daily news - a Chinese-language Hong Kong newspaper he saved with a HK$60 million bailout loan in 2008 when it ran into financial difficulty.
Seen as a “very generous person” by acquaintances, Yeung lives with his partner and two children in a 6,000 square-foot mansion in Hong Kong’s rarefied Peak district.
Among his fleet of cars is a HK$6 million Maybach.
($1 = HK$7.783)
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