Birmingham City in crisis: Cops could look at Carson Yeung's casino links

Jul 3 2011 by Ben Goldby, Sunday Mercury

HONG Kong cops investigating money laundering allegations against Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung may look at his financial links to casinos in Macau, it was claimed last night.

The soccer boss, 51, appeared in court on Thursday on five charges of laundering up to £59 million between 2001 and 2007.

The move followed an investigation by specialist drugs enforcement detectives and relate to five different bank accounts. The Sunday Mercury understands that three are in Yeung’s name and two are registered to his father.

If found guilty of the offences, Birmingham City’s secretive owner could serve a 14-year jail term and be stripped of his shareholding in Blues.

The former hairdresser was arrested by financial investigators from Hong Kong Police’s Narcotics Bureau late on Wednesday, and has been released on £600,000 bail until a hearing August 11.

A former Hong Kong employee of Yeung’s told the Sunday Mercury that cops were looking at possible links between the money laundering allegations and casinos in the nearby gaming hotspot of Macau.

The ex-business associate, who asked not to be named, said: “The presumption is that with such a large amount of money at the centre of these allegations, they will be looking at the casino connection in Macau as part of their investigations.

‘‘Yeung has a lot of contacts over there.”

When Yeung launched his first bid for Birmingham City in 2007, it emerged that he was a founding shareholder of Greek Mythology – one of the most profitable casinos in the gambling mecca of Macau, Southern China.

It is unclear whether he still has links with the casino or resort.

But Yeung is reported to have made some of his fortune in the casino business, with Macau seeing a flood of cash arriving from Chinese gamblers over the last decade.

“The amount of money coming out of China and into Hong Kong and the casinos in Macau is massive,’’ said our source.

‘‘People turn up with suitcases full of cash, millions of dollars at a time to gamble and buy houses.”

Even before his arrival in Birmingham, Yeung was a passionate football fan, and owned Hong Kong Rangers Football Club for two years.

The source says the soccer boss was a mysterious figure even then.

“At the time he seemed to come from nowhere, no-one knew him,” they said.

“But there was no big money, no significant spending at Hong Kong Rangers.

“I think it was just a way for him to get into football, to get into the limelight.

“Yeung was involved with one or two casinos at the time, and one of those became Rangers’ shirt sponsors.

“The first time I met him he seemed keen on football, but he was not a flashy type. He certainly didn’t come across as a mega-rich tycoon.