Chinese businessman found guilty of money laundering pays $1 million as court restitution will be sentenced next month

Chinese businessman Aidong Zhang who has been found guilty of money laundering and obtaining property by deception has paid one million dollars as restitution into the court’s trust account today.                                        

He will be sentenced on the 14th of next month.

Zhang's lawyer, Iqbal Khan made the payment on behalf of Zhang.

In mitigation today, Khan submitted that Zhang pay one million dollars as restitution, be given a suspended sentence and also pay a fine of $100,000.

The prosecution had asked that a custodial sentence of 5 years be given to Zhang to discourage future offenders from trying to buy their way out of prison.

Meanwhile, High Court Judge Justice Salesi Temo has highlighted that if he imposes a 5 year sentence, it will be a message to future offenders not to pay back money they stole.

Justice Temo also says that this is also the first case that he has come across where the accused is willing to pay back money he stole.

Zhang is guilty of deceptively obtaining property and engaging directly or indirectly in money laundering in the amount of FJD$1,240,740.74.

This happened between 1st June 2014 and 31st January 2016.

Zhang obtained the money by deception from the complainant who was his business partner on the pretext that property was being sold at $5.5 million instead of its actual price of $3.3 million.

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