Acting on friends’ advice, Min Hu lent $61,400 to currency exchange remitter Ye Hua expecting to profit from FX trading. Her money is now trapped, along with funds totalling some $1.5 million owed fourteen similar investors, following a High Court restraining order freezing all Ms Hua’s assets as proceeds of crime on her conviction for laundering proceeds of drug dealing.
The High Court was told about $4.5 million is held frozen. It is estimated Ms Hua laundered some $27.5 million. She is currently in prison.
Police acknowledge that Ms Hu appears to have been innocently caught up in Ms Hua’s illegal activities and is likely owed $61,400. Ms Hu lent money to Ms Hua in two tranches in 2018 and 2019, being promised a ten per cent return on her investments.
Ms Hu is not entitled to be paid her $61,400 immediately out of the $4.25 million held frozen, the High Court ruled. She stands as an unsecured creditor of Ms Hua, amongst sundry other creditors, including Police with a Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act claim, all seeking to recover from the frozen fund.
Ms Hu had lent the money to Ms Hua for her to invest as she saw fit.
Ms Hu’s investment could not be traced to any one specific account or investment. Police gave evidence that Ms Hua had access to multiple third party bank accounts in both New Zealand and China, which she used as conduits for money laundering.
Ms Hu’s best avenue for any recovery is to give evidence at a later profit forfeiture hearing in support of her claim for a share of the $4.25 million currently frozen, Justice Wilkinson-Smith said.
Commissioner of Police v. Hua – High Court (1.04.25)
25.099