Businessmen with Hong Kong ties acquitted of money laundering charges at UK court
Hong Kong-based businessman, accused over scheme involving more than US$108 million invested by victims, slams British prosecutors
“I now look forward to returning to Hong Kong,” said James Sutherland, businessman based in the city, after a two-year judicial saga in England. Both him and businessman Jack Flader were acquitted of money laundering charges at Southwark Crown Court in London, on Thursday, following a nine-week trial.
This was the last in a series of three trials centred on boiler room fraud which involved more than $108 million invested by victims based in the UK. Nine people were convicted as a result of the earlier trials in 2013 and 2014. The third trial, which ended last week, was focused on those – Sutherland and Flader - alleged to have laundered the proceeds of the earlier fraud.
Sutherland, a British citizen, is a licensed financial advisor who has been based in Hong Kong since 1979. The accusation was related to Zetland Fiduciary Group, a Hong Kong-based fiduciary company, headed by Sutherland, which sets up and structures companies and trusts for clients who want to operate in the city and elsewhere in Asia.
“I have been forced to spend millions of pounds defending my good name, which has been built up over a lifetime in business. Time I should have spent running a successful fiduciary company operating from Hong Kong has instead been spent on preparing a defence and proving my innocence in a London court,” Sutherland noted in a statement issued following last week’s court decision.
He is now planning to return to his business full-time.
Sutherland maintained his innocence since he was first arrest in December 2013. He was then on police bail until his trial, which meant he had to surrender his British passport and needed permission to travel on business back and forth from Hong Kong.
“This was a charge I have always strongly denied, and I believe a case that should never have been brought,” he said.
Sutherland noted that he is outraged at his treatment by the authorities in London who brought the case. “The incompetence of the Serious Fraud Office was apparent from the outset of this investigation,” he said. “The case against me was built on mud-slinging, smear and innuendo yet I was kept on bail for more than two years .”
He described the trial as “farcical and lengthy,” noting that the events, which took place in Hong Kong, hadn’t attracted any interest from the city’s authorities. The Serious Fraud Office, an agency of the UK government, brought the case in London even though the Hong Kong authorities had never suggested there was any wrongdoing, he said.
Sutherland’s representative, Tim Jotischky, told the Post that neither Sutherland nor his companies are involved in other investigations or court cases.
Hong Kong Police said it could not confirm it due to privacy matters.
Zetland employs 35 staff in Hong Kong and 15 staff at satellite offices elsewhere in Asia. Sutherland also ownsa recruitment and HR consultancyin Hong Kong.
Flader, also acquitted in this case, is a former director of Zetland Fiduciary Group and previously a Californian attorney. He left Zetland in 2006. According to Sutherland’s representative, they have not worked together since then and have no business ties. Flader could not be reached for comment.
