Hitsujiko Nakade was said to have opened a bank account tied to the case
DANNY.MOK@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 9:44am
UPDATED : Thursday, 26 November, 2015, 11:49am
Nakade, who changed his name from Chung and is originally from the city, was arrested early yesterday. Photo: Now TV
A defeated candidate in the Yau Tsim Mong district council election was arrested yesterday over his alleged links to a money laundering case involving HK$2.17 million.
Police said they received a call from an employee of a mainland company on January 16 claiming it had received a suspected bogus email asking the firm to remit money to two bank accounts in the city, and it did so.
Hitsujiko Nakade, 23, a locally born and raised Hong Kong-Chinese whose original surname is Chung, was arrested at his home at Kwong Lam Court in Sha Tin by officers from the Tai Po district investigation team at about 6am Wednesday.
The social activist was said to have opened one of two bank accounts that were connected to the case. A computer was seized.
On November 4, a 47-year-old man was arrested for money laundering in an office on San Wan Road in Sheung Shui. Police said he had opened one of the two accounts. He was released on bail and ordered to report back to authorities next month.
Nakade was detained yesterday for questioning.
Known for his effeminate appearance and nicknames, the activist was said to be a devotee of Horace Chin Wan-kan, an assistant professor of Chinese at Lingnan University.
Chin published a book suggesting Hong Kong should become a city-state, and the work was credited by some as inspiring calls for autonomy. The book was also widely seen as laying the foundations for today’s localist movement.
READ MORE: Two arrested in Hong Kong over HK$1.8 billion money laundering gang linked to phone scams
Nakade lost the race for a Yau Tsim Mong district council seat in Cherry constituency on Sunday, securing just 172 votes. The winner, Chung Chak-fai, took 1,611 votes, and the other candidate, Lam Ho-yeung, won 858 votes.
His original election platform was themed ‘Build a Hong Kong nation’, but the Registration and Electoral Office required him to remove it.
In November last year during the Occupy movement, Nakade was arrested with four others in a unit in Tai Kok Tsui where a cache of modified air guns, wooden shields and screws were seized.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1883442/defeated-then-arrested-hong-kong-district-council-candidate
