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| Eva Rose Tacda right poses with friend Lea dela Cruz after trial at Kwun Tong Court |
Kwun Tong Court today acquitted after trial a Filipina domestic helper of three counts of money laundering, on the day she celebrated her 50th birthday, ending three years of anxiety that began when police knocked on her employer’s door.
Eva Rose Tacda muttered thanks as she tearfully hugged the court
interpreter, the duty lawyer’s interpreter, a friend who sheltered her since
June, and the lawyer who defended her in the trial.
She was charged with three counts of dealing with property
known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offence, contrary to
sections 25(1) and 25(3) of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance.
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| DETAILS HERE |
Deputy Magistrate Breanne Kwok said prosecution failed to present
reliable evidence that Tacda opened the three bank accounts used by unknown
persons to receive deposits from victims of scams, and from which withdrawals
of a total of $2.18 million were made.
Magistrate Kwok said she believed her narrative that her
Facebook acocunt was hacked and in her effort to recover it, she followed instructions
to send images of her Hong Kong ID card, and pose for various angles of her
face.
She said these same images ended up being used to open the
three bank accounts used in money laundering. There was “no sufficient evidence
she was the one who uploaded the photos,” the magistrate added.
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| PINDUTIN PARA SA DETALYE |
She also noted that the banks’ application forms were in
Chinese, her listed addresses differed from her real address, her mobile phone
had no traces of having been used in opening the accounts and she did not know
the existence of these accounts.
The first charge arose from deposits and withdrawals
totaling $256,510.1 in her MOX Bank Ltd. account within two days, on Feb.
22-23, 2023.
In an interview, Tacda said police filed a money laundering charge against her in September 2023 and confiscated her mobile phone.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
However, two more
charges were filed against her a year later, this time for her alleged handling
of $940,356 though deposits and withdrawals in her Standard Chartered Bank
account on February 22-27, 2023, and the inflow and outflow of $983,839 in her
HSBC account also on February 22-27, 2023.
She said her priority now is processing her new visa as she
has found a new employer.
She has been jobless since her employer left Hong Kong for
good last June, and has been staying with a friend, Lea dela Cruz, a fellow
member of the Mormon church.
