Query on Yan’s status as Kiwi
Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne has asked officials to assess what effect William Yan’s conviction for money laundering may have on his New Zealand citizenship status. Yan — also known as Bill Liu, Yang Liu and Yong Ming Yan — pleaded guilty to the charge in March. Name suppression was lifted at the sentencing hearing in the Auckland District Court yesterday. The 45-year-old millionaire businessman will spend the next five months serving home detention in a luxury apartment in downtown Auckland. To allow Yan to work, Judge Rob Ronayne granted him permission to leave the apartment for meetings during weekdays, for up to five hours a day, but only with his probation officer’s approval. The admission of guilt is a twist in a saga dating to 2001, when Yan came to New Zealand with two Chinese passports. Since then, he has steadfastly denied any wrong-doing in China, where he was accused of a multimillion-dollar fraud. Yan maintained the allegations against him were politically motivated. Yet the summary of facts, to which Yan pleaded guilty, reveals he admitted receiving “significant sums of money” in the 24 months leading to August 2014. “Those funds were the proceeds of serious offending, namely, a series of frauds,” according to the summary, released to the Herald. “Mr Yan believed those funds were the proceeds of that serious offending. [He] concealed the funds in various ways, including conducting transactions through SkyCity Casino and third-party banking facilities.” Unusually, the summary of facts did not contain a specific sum of money. Paul Wicks, QC, for Yan, said his client was not involved in the “series of frauds” referred to in the summary of facts and did not personally gain from it. He said Yan insisted the “significant” amount of money laundered did not exceed $30,000.
Mark Harborow, on behalf of the police, said it was irrelevant if Yan committed the underlying fraud or not, as he had pleaded guilty to laundering the proceeds of a crime.
The police did not seek reparation for the money laundering because of the $42.85 million Yan forfeited in August as a final settlement in a civil case brought by police.
Dunne said his request to the Department of Internal Affairs was a standard process after the conclusion of court proceedings.
“If deprivation proceedings under the Citizenship Act 1977 are recommended the department will provide me with appropriate advice in due course.”
Prime Minister Bill English said Yan’s sentence was entirely a matter for the court. Asked if Yan’s settlement with New Zealand authorities gave the impression justice could be bought, English said he didn’t think that conclusion could be drawn.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said Yan had been “hit with a wet bus ticket”.
People not committing white-collar crimes were thrown in jail, Peters said, and this case told New Zealanders that more serious whitecollar crime did not get properly punished.
Act leader David Seymour said he respected the judge who had all the evidence before him. “But I think most people would be flabbergasted that you could come to New Zealand, launder [money] and all you have to do is stay home for five months. And not even all the time.”
It would be very difficult to revoke someone’s citizenship, Seymour said.