The police on Friday said more than 1,150 people were arrested for money laundering in 2022, adding that this year’s figure is expected to be significantly higher.

Officers said since the beginning of this year, they have already arrested over 630 people on suspicion of laundering some HK$7.8 billion.

The force attributed the problem to a jump in fraud cases during the pandemic.

“E-shopping fraud is one of our major issues. This is one of the very typical type, where we have a deception case, you have the money, the crime proceed, the deceived money going into a bank account of an unknown person,” chief inspector Tse Tsz-fung from the financial intelligence and investigation bureau said.

“End up we are catching a guy who is the account holder, [who has] no idea about the deception case. All he knows is ‘I sold my account’, or ‘I lent it to my friend’, which is quite an unacceptable and unreasonable excuse we are seeing.”

Tse said the force has stepped up its publicity efforts to hammer home the message that people should not lend or sell their bank accounts.

He also noted that officers will try and speed up the prosecution process.