Chinese woman’s luxury goods collection is the proceeds of crime, judge rules

Mr Justice Alexander Owens’s ruling came in a case brought by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) against Yan-Yan Fan (47) and Guang Ying Wang (49), who came to Ireland in the early 2000s.

He made orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act in relation to funds of some €146,000 and various luxury items.

Mr Wang, also known as “Richard”, did not contest the case. Ms Fan, who also uses the name “Ivy”, represented herself in court and denied any involvement in crime.

The bureau alleged the pair were in league with other Chinese nationals involved in operating cannabis grow houses, the judge said.

It pointed to large amounts of cash that passed through Irish bank accounts of Ms Fan, Mr Wang and her parents over the years and claimed the accounts were used to launder illegitimate income in the black economy, he said.

The bureau alleged Ms Fan, a mother, used the “daigou” or “surrogate shopping” method of sending luxury goods to China. The CAB claimed these outflows were matched by money transfers by her parents to Ireland, which helped pay for one of her apartments.

The judge said she had a “significant link” with 7A Henrietta Place in late 2012 when a grow house with 1,490 cannabis plants valued at €1.1 million was found to be operating from there.

She was a tenant of the property in 2012 and 2013 but when interviewed by gardaí in 2014 she claimed her business partner had put a sub-tenant in who was responsible for the operation, he said. He found it hard to credit her evidence that she was unaware of what was going on upstairs at 7A.

He said she has a significant link with Mr Wang who was involved in money laundering and the commercial growing and distribution of cannabis in 2020.

Her regular lodgements to bank accounts of large sums in cash over the years were consistent with laundering of cash receipts from drug dealing and cash receipts from activities which involved tax evasion, the judge said.

However, he found some of the information the CAB relied on to link Ms Fan with criminality was “unconvincing”.

The judge said Mr Wang was arrested on March 19th, 2021, and questioned about his suspected involvement in a grow house in Phibblestown, Co Dublin, where cannabis worth €400,000 had been discovered.

As a result of the find, gardaí searched Ms Fan’s apartment at Cedarhurst Road, Ashtown, Dublin, where Mr Wang was also living at the time, and an apartment she leased in Dublin City Centre but which was by then occupied by her sub-tenants, the judge said.

During these searches, conducted in spring/summer 2021, gardaí seized 96 items of designer-label fashion goods, stated to be worth €119,000. From her Ashtown home gardaí also seized €14,000 cash.

The Sunday World previously obtained the list of the jaw-dropping designer goods that were seized during the raid.

The items include a Chanel Petite Timeless Tote Black Caviar Leather valued at €2,500, a Louis Vuitton On-the-Go Tote MM valued at €2,000, a Chanel Medallion Bag with Grained Calfskin valued at €4,400 and a Louis Vuitton Petite Malle Trunk valued at €3,950.

Other items include a Chanel Gold Vinyl Chain Shopper valued at €1,000, a Louis Vuitton Passport Cover Monogram valued at €245, Jimmy Choo shoes as well as €229,000 in a solicitor’s client account.

The judge was persuaded that most of the designer items were purchased, directly or indirectly, with crime proceeds and €129,231 of the balance in her current account derives from crime proceeds.

The same could be said for the €14,255 cash seized from Ms Fan’s apartment and €3,000 used as a booking deposit, he said.

Mr Justice Owens said the bureau did not persuade him about all of its claims related to transactions to Ms Fan’s bank account.

He was not convinced regarding the full proceeds arising from the sale of one of her apartments and said some €90,000 should be returned to her parents.

Some parts of the bureau’s case against Ms Fan were not supported by satisfactory proof, including in relation to its valuation of the designer items, which he accepted were presents that should be returned or were valueless, he said. He was not prepared to entertain an aspect of the bureau’s application related to items seized from the apartment Ms Fan had sublet to tenants.

However, the judge was not convinced by Ms Fan’s claim that her parents’ wealth and pension income was the source of her funds over the years.

He found to be “wildly improbable” her claim that the “vast sums” spent in Brown Thomas between 2016 and 2020 from two of her accounts were transactions on behalf of Chinese friends and tourists. He noted there were no tourists in Ireland for most of 2020 and that China was then in lock-down.