The Asian owner of Football League club Birmingham City has reportedly been found guilty of five counts of money laundering by Hong Kong court.
Carson Yeung, who will be sentenced on Friday and could face 14 years in jail, had denied laundering 55.4 million pounds through his bank accounts between 2001 and 2007, although the judge said that his testimony was 'self contradictory' and he was 'making it up as he went along'.
According to the BBC, Yeung, who completed his 81.5 million-pound takeover of the club in 2009 after an initial failed attempt in 2007, first appeared in court in 2011 on money-laundering charges and had last month resigned from all roles on the boards related to the club days before verdict in his trial was due.
Although Yeung maintained he accumulated his wealth through stock trading, business ventures in mainland China, a hair salon and a keen interest in gambling, but prosecutors said he was unable to show where almost 7.7 million pounds in his bank accounts had come from.
The judge also said that Yeung had lied about how he made his money and exaggerated the profits generated by his hair salon business, adding that there are reasonable grounds to believe that Yeung's various business deals had used money, which represented 'proceeds of an indictable offence'.
