【CNN】大隐隐于市--为什么香港是北朝鲜最中意的洗钱地点？ [美国媒体]

Hiding in plain sight

大隐隐于市

Why Hong Kong is a preferred spot for North Korea's money launderers

为什么香港是北朝鲜最中意的洗钱地点？

By Joshua Berlinger, CNN 
Updated 0158 GMT (0958 HKT) October 17, 2017

Hong Kong (CNN)Easey Commercial Building is an unassuming mid-rise office tower on Hennessy Road, an artery that runs through Hong Kong's busy Wan Chai district. The structure sits among scenery that's classic Hong Kong: bright lights, tall buildings, people rushing about.

港岛湾仔区车水马龙的主干道轩尼诗道上有一栋不起眼的中高层写字楼叫作伊西商业大厦，它的周围是典型的香港景象：霓虹绚丽，高楼林立，人流如织。

But camouflaged in the normalcy is a business that seemingly exists in name only.

但是伪装在正常表象之下的却是看似只在名义上存在的买卖。

Take the elevator to the Easey building's 21st floor, and in room 2103 is the registered office of Unaforte Limited Hong Kong. It's a company accused by the United Nations of violating sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea's official name) for helping the country make money internationally, funding everything from its nuclear weapons program to the lavish lifestyles of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un and Pyongyang's most important players.
Crowds cross Hong Kong's Hennessy Road during rush hour.

搭乘电梯至伊西大厦的21楼，2103室是旺福特香港有限公司的注册办公地址，这家公司被指控违反联合国对朝鲜民主主义人民共和国的制裁决议，帮助其在国际上赚钱，为其核计划和金正恩等平壤头面人物的奢侈生活提供资金。

 

交通高峰时期人流穿过轩尼诗道

At least, Unaforte is supposed to be there. That is the address listed on its publicly available corporate filings provided to the Hong Kong government. When CNN visited the office, it found neither Unaforte nor its listed company secretary, Prolive Consultants Limited.

起码旺福特公司名义上是位于这儿，这个地址被列在香港政府提供的可公开查询的企业名单中，然而当CNN的人来到这儿，发现这儿既没有旺福特公司，也没有名单上列出的公司秘书专盈顾问有限公司。

Instead, room 2103 was home to a seemingly unrelated company: Cheerful Best Company Services. Only one man was there when CNN stopped by, and he said a representative for Prolive Consultants only comes by every so often to pick up mail. He had not heard of Unaforte.

相反，2103室有一家看似不相关的公司：佳悦商业服务有限公司，公司里面只有一个人，他说专盈顾问公司有一个代表偶尔会来收一下邮件，至于旺福特公司则没听说过。

 

The Easey Commercial Building in Hong Kong.

伊西商业大厦

The United Nations Panel of Experts on North Korea -- the body charged with monitoring sanctions enforcement on the hermit nation -- said in two recent reports that Unaforte opened and owned a bank in the North Korean city of Rason. That is likely a violation of the latest UN Security Council resolution banning joint international ventures with North Korea, according to Christopher Wall, a lawyer who specializes in international trade law and a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Washington, DC.

负责监视制裁执行情况的联合国专家小组说，近来有两份关于旺福特在北朝鲜罗先市开办了一家银行的报告，按照专门研究国际贸易法的律师克里斯托弗.华尔与他的搭档皮尔斯伯里.温思罗普的说法，这很可能违反了最新的禁止与北朝鲜成立合资企业的安理会决议。

Unaforte is not unique. It's just one of a handful of front companies identified by the United Nations, nongovernmental analysts and US law enforcement that help North Korea access the global financial system.

旺福特不是唯一的，它只是被联合国，民间分析人士，美国执法机构认定的协助北朝鲜进入国际金融体系的一小撮幌子公司之一而已。

Front companies -- also known as shell companies -- are legitimate corporations that do not possess significant assets or maintain active business operations. Some serve licit business purposes -- helping foreign companies establish a foothold in overseas markets, for one, or reap foreign tax benefits. Others help to conceal the true ownership of a business or the parties involved in illicit transactions.

幌子公司--也称作空壳公司--是一种不拥有重大资产或未保持活跃的业务活动的合法公司。它们有的从事正当的商业目的--帮助外资公司在海外设置一个立足点，这是其一，另外还可以享受涉外的税收优惠，其它的好处是隐藏一桩生意的实际拥有人或与非法交易有牵涉的当事人。

RELATED: What is a front company?

相关知识：什么是幌子公司？

Here's an example: say business A wants to sell business B something potentially unlawful, like military-grade hardware. If investigators were already monitoring business A, business B could pay a front company for the weapons instead of business A. Or business B could create its own front company to pay business A's front company, making the network even bigger and more nebulous.

举一个例子：话说商人A想卖给商人B某个不合法的东西，象军用级别的器件之类的，如果A已处于调查人员的监视之中，那么B可以把武器款付给幌子公司而不是付给A，或者B成立一家自己的幌子公司付钱给A的幌子公司，使得交易流程更大更隐秘。

North Korea is believed to use these types of practices to cover up much of its trade, from selling coal and fuel to exporting weapons.

北朝鲜据认为采用这类操作方式掩盖它的许多交易活动，从出售煤和燃料到武器出口。

"The (North Korean) regime accesses the international financial system through front companies and other deceptive financial practices in order to buy goods and services abroad," Sigal Mandelker, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence at the US Department of the Treasury, said in Senate testimony on September 28.

“北朝鲜政权通过幌子公司和其它欺诈性金融行为接入国际金融系统，以从海外购买物质和服务，”美国财政部反恐和财经情报的副部长西加尔.曼德尔克于9月28日在参议院作证时说。

Hong Kong is one of two business jurisdictions (along with the British Virgin Islands) where the UN Panel of Experts on North Korea has seen the largest share of North Korean-controlled front companies operating, said Hugh Griffiths, the panel's coordinator.

联合国北朝鲜问题专家小组协调人格里菲斯说，香港是专家小组见过的有着由北朝鲜最大程度控制的幌子公司的经济体之一（另一个是英属维京群岛）。

"You can just count them up in our reports -- Hong Kong is the preponderance," Griffiths told CNN.

格里菲斯说：“你可以在我们的报告中数一下它们--香港占多数。”

The city is no stranger to those looking to make a quick buck by skirting the law, whether it was the pirates who roamed the South China Sea in the 16th century or the Triads who spread their tentacles following Chinese Civil War, while the city was still under British control.

对于那些想避开这些赚快钱的人来说，这个城市并不陌生，无论是16世纪出没于南中国海的海盗，还是随着中国的战乱而散布扩张的三合会组织，即便当时这个城市仍处于英国统治之下。

Today, Hong Kong is governed as a special administrative region of China. When the British handed control of the city to Beijing in 1997, the agreement was to run Hong Kong according to a policy known as "one country, two systems." It promised Hong Kongers their own political system -- with more individual liberties, market freedoms and lax corporate oversight and reporting requirements -- would in large part continue as is, but Hong Kong would become part of China.

今天，香港是中国统治之下的一个特别行政区，英国于1997年将其移交给北京，按照协议，北京在香港实行一国两制政策，承诺香港拥有自己的政治制度--拥有更多的个人自由，市场自由度和宽松的公司监管及审查报告要求，大部份沿袭既有的，不过香港成为中国的一部分。

"It should come as no surprise that Hong Kong is featured so prominently in our report," Griffiths said. "It's the closest major international financial center to North Korea. It's the closest major offshore international financial center to North Korea. And historically, it's been a center of global and regional trade ... and with fewer questions asked and looser regulation than, say, Beijing."

格里菲斯说：“不出意外，香港在我们的报告中这么突出，它是离北朝鲜最近的主要国际金融中心，是离北朝鲜最近的的主要离岸国际金融中心， 而且由于在历史原因，它是一个全球和区域贸易中心...被北京过问得较少而且监管更宽松。”

CNN reached out to both Hong Kong police and its Joint Financial Intelligence Unit for comment on the United Nations reports, Unaforte and shell companies in Hong Kong altogether and was told "police do not comment on individual case(s)."

CNN接触了两支香港警方和他们的金融情报部门，请求对联合国的报告，旺福特公司，以及香港整体的空壳公司状况给予评论，被告知“警方不评论别事件。”

A secretary and a director

一个秘书，一个董事

When Unaforte's company particulars show up in Hong Kong's publicly available corporate records, the name of just one individual appears. He holds a passport from the small Caribbean island of Dominica. A passport number is there, but not a phone number.

当旺福特公司的的信息显示在香港的可公开查询的法人记录上时，出现一个人的名字，他持有加勒比岛国多米尼克的护照，有护照号码，但没有联系电话。

Those details shed light on Hong Kong's incorporation requirements. To start a company in Hong Kong, one needs at least one director (has to be an actual person) and a company secretary (which can either be a person or another company, but must be based in Hong Kong), according to the Companies Registry website.

这些细节指明了香港对公司的要求，按照公司注册网站所说，在香港开设一家公司，起码的一个要求是有一个董事（必须是一个真实的人），一个公司秘书（可以是一个人或另一家位于香港的公司）。

Though the company's registered office must be in Hong Kong, they are allowed to share an office with their company secretary and neither technically has to operate out of that address, an official with the Hong Kong Companies Registry told CNN on the phone. But doing that is considered a "red flag" for money laundering investigators.

虽然公司的注册办公室必须在香港，不过允许共享其公司秘书的办公室，而且从技术上讲也可以在该地址之外运作，一个香港公司注册处的官员在电话里告诉CNN，但是这样做会被反洗钱调查人员视为危险信号。

"These practices, while legal, lend themselves to North Korean efforts to camouflage the real identity and nationality of those who stand behind these registered entities," said Griffiths.

“这是现实，但是合法，这种公司给北朝鲜尽力掩盖真实身份和注册实体的幕后人的国籍提供了方便”格里菲斯说。

C4ADS, a Washington-based nonprofit firm which conducts data-driven analysis of security issues, identified 160 North Korean front companies in Hong Kong in a 2016 report. And Sayari Analytics, another firm that uses open data to monitor the connections between firms, has identified more than 100 entities in Hong Kong linked to sanctioned North Korean ones.

C4ADS是一家位于华盛顿的进行安全问题的大数据分析的非盈利机构，在2016年的一份报告中，它认定了160家位于香港的北朝鲜幌子公司，另外一个利用公开数据监测公司间联系的萨亚里分析机构则认定了超过100家香港实体与受制裁的北朝鲜有联系。



The system wasn't designed for wrongdoing; rather, it makes Hong Kong an easy place for companies abroad do business, as they do not have to incur the cost of setting up a new shop, according to David Webb, a former investment banker who is now a Hong Kong-based activist investor.

制度并不是设计用来干坏事的，而且，它使香港成为一个易于在海外做生意的地方，因为他们不需要承受开设新店铺的成本，戴维.韦伯这样说，他以前是一个投资银行家，现在是香港的一名积极投资人。

"It's common and it's not a sign of wrongdoing itself," Webb said.

韦伯说:"这种公司很常见，也不是要做坏事的标志。"

To service offshore clients, there are plenty of secretarial services that provide company directors abroad with assistance. They often serve as company secretaries for their clients.

为了服务于离岸客户，大量的文秘服务公司提供公司的海外董事协助服务，它们通常为客户充当公司秘书的角色。

Prolive Consultants, the company secretary for Unaforte, appears to be one such company.
 
专盈顾问，旺福特的秘书公司，显然是一家这样的公司。

"As a company that offers secretarial services, we do not interfere with our clients' business. What we do is just to help collect clients' business registration certificates and forms, assist them," said Amy Lam with Prolive Consultants, whose phone number CNN obtained after visiting the Easey Building office.

“作为一家提供秘书服务的公司，我们不涉入客户的业务，我们所做的就是帮助收集客户的商业登记证书和表格，协助他们而已，”专盈公司的艾米.林说，CNN在拜访了伊西大厦管理处后获得了她的电话号码。

When asked by CNN what type of business Unaforte is engaged in, Lam said: "We do not interfere with what kind of business our client does. Whether they are successful or not, or whether their business is profitable or not, we don't know."

当被问到旺福特公司从事哪种业务时，林说：“我们不介入客户从事的业务，他们成功与否，盈利与否，我们都不知道。”

Ledgers and credits

账目与信贷

 

The sale of about $6 million worth of refined sugar in 2009 helped bring another company doing business with Pyongyang to the attention of American authorities.
North Korea was ostensibly doing something simple: buying a food staple. But they did it through a complicated, labyrinthine transaction involving North Korea, Dandong Hongxiang Industrial Development (DHID), a bank and a Canadian company, according to a 2016 criminal complaint.

2009年另一家与平壤有来往的公司的一桩价值600万美元的精制糖的销售买卖引起了美国的注意。按2016年的起诉文件，北朝鲜表面上做得很简单：购买主粮，但是他们通过一个涉及到北朝鲜，丹东鸿翔实业有限公司（DHID)，一家银行，一家加拿大公司的迷宫般复杂的交易过程来完成了它。

That's because if companies like DHID or Unaforte are doing business in dollars, it means their transactions are likely to go through the United States at some point (unless they're conducted in cash).

那是因为如果象DHID或旺福特这样的公司用美元做买卖，就意味着他们的交易很有可能在某个节点会经过美国（除非他们使用现金）。

Companies that are sanctioned in most cases cannot easily conduct transactions in the dollar, as US banks have to back those deals and would filter and flag sanctioned entities, Anthony Ruggiero, an expert in the use of targeted financial measures at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told CNN.
The DHID charges revealed that to get around US prying eyes, North Korea uses a complex ledger and credit scheme to hide North Korea's involvement in dollar transactions, Ruggiero explained to Congress in September.

被制裁的公司在大多数情况下无疑是不能用美元作交易的，美国银行将退回交易还会过滤并标记受制裁的实体，安东尼.鲁杰罗是一名以保卫民主为目的使用金融基础设施方面的专家，他告诉CNN。鲁杰罗在9月对国会解释说，对DHID的指控揭示为了避开美国的监视之眼，北朝鲜使用了一套复杂的账目和信贷方案以隐藏他们用美元交易的行为。

Thirteen of DHID's front companies were located in Hong Kong. Eleven shared the same registered address in Wan Chai, less than a kilometer away from the Easey Commercial Building, the indictment said.
CNN was not able to reach DHID for comment.

起诉书称,DHID有13家幌子公司在香港，其中11家共享湾仔区的同一个注册地址，该处距伊西商业大厦不到一公里.
CNNC未能取得DHID公司对此的评论。

  

"North Korea's fundamental problem is it needs to operate at least partly in dollars or euros but has to figure out ways to do it when none of its partners want to be the node where North Korea and the US overlap in the international financial system," said Sheena Greitens, a professor at the University of Missouri who has been studying North Korea's illicit finance activities for the last 10 to 15 years. "Because of the (international) financial architecture and the importance of the dollar, the US has a tremendous ability to sort of say who can use the dollar system and who can't."

“北朝鲜的根本问题是它至少需要在一定程度上运用美元或欧元，但是不得不想出办法在没有合作伙伴希望在国际金融体系中产生朝美交叉节点的情况下做到这些，"希娜.格里滕斯是密苏里大学从事北朝鲜非法金融活动研究长达10至15年的教授，她说，“因为金融架构和美元的重要性，美国有极大的能力去说谁能够和谁不能够使用美元体系。”

DHID does not appear to be alone. In addition to the more than 100 firms and individuals in Hong Kong linked to North Korea, another 300-plus mainland Chinese entities are also connected to the same North Korean networks, according to Jessica Knight, the director of analysis at Sayari.

DHID公司好象并不孤独，除它之外香港还有100多家公司或个人与此朝鲜有关联，另有300多家中国大陆的实体也与同一个北朝鲜贸易网有联系，萨亚里分析机构主管杰西卡.奈特说，

"Companies in Hong Kong and mainland China are often closely connected -- sharing owners or directors, for example -- and operate as part of a single broader North Korean facilitation network," said Knight.

“香港和中国大陆的公司联系非常紧密--比如它们有有共同的拥有人或董事--那么操作起来就可以作为单一且更广泛的北朝鲜的便利化网络的一部分。”

"Chinese businessmen like to conduct their illicit business in Hong Kong for the same reasons they like to conduct their licit business there: it is so much easier. Since North Korean facilitation networks are largely based in China and run by Chinese citizens, it is no surprise that those same networks frequently run through Hong Kong," she said.

“中国商人喜欢在香港处理他们的非法生意，出于相同的理由，他们也喜欢在那儿处理合法的生意，因为在这儿做生意实在非常简单，北朝鲜的便利网络主要位于中国且由中国公民运作，所以不奇怪同样的网络也经常通过香港运作。”她说道。

Hong Kong's appeal may stem from a service it offers front companies that potentially gets around US oversight when using the dollar: the Clearing House Automated Transfer System (CHATS) for certain transactions involving US dollars for payments between banks.

香港的吸引力可能源自于它提供给幌子公司的一项服务在使用美元时有可能避开美国的监管：对涉及银行间美元支付的某些交易的票据交换所自动转移系统（CHATS)。

Though CHATS is used for legitimate purposes in most cases, it is outside the purview of US federal law enforcement, says David Asher, one of the architects of the 2006 sanctions on Banco Delta Asia, which identified and froze $25 million worth of North Korean funds abroad.

虽然大多数情况下CHATS系统被用于合法的目的，但它处于美国联邦执法机构的权限之外，2006年对澳门汇业银行进行制裁，认定并冻结了北朝鲜2500万海外资金的策划师戴维.亚瑟说。

"If they were clearing those transactions through New York (banks), we'd zap them because they're sanctioned. We'd freeze them, we'd forfeit the money," said Asher. "If it goes through CHATS, it's a black hole."

“如果他们通过纽约的银行清算交易，我们就能捉到他们，因为他们受到了制裁，我们会冻结它们，还会没收它们，”亚瑟说，“如果他们走CHATS，那就是一个黑洞。”

That, according to Asher, has helped Hong Kong become a gateway for North Korea, a place where North Korean front companies can turn the foreign currencies they earn from selling formerly licit exports like coal or textiles (now banned by UN sanctions), or the illicit ones like weapons and drugs, into US dollars.

按照亚瑟的介绍，这已让香港成为了北朝鲜的一个通道，这个地方能够让北朝鲜的幌子公司将他们销售的煤炭或纺织品之类的合法出口物质（现在已被联合国制裁禁止）或武器和毒品等非法物质赚取的外汇兑换成美元。

"This stuff is hiding in plain sight. It's been made known to the public authorities and they've done nothing," he said.

“这些事情就藏在眼皮子底下，当局肯定知道，但他们什么都没做。”他说。

 

Peaceful pressure

平和的压力

All of this is important to the United States because controlling North Korea's cash flow is key to its strategy to rein in Pyongyang.

这一切对美国而言非常重要，因为控制北朝鲜的现金流是约束平壤的战略的关键所在。

US President Donald Trump's administration calls it a "peaceful pressure" campaign -- ramp up sanctions and diplomatic isolation on North Korea in the hopes that it will put its nuclear weapons on the negotiating table.

美国总统唐纳德.特朗普的相关部门把这称为一个“平和的压力”--以渐渐增加的制裁和外交孤立希望能将北朝鲜拉回核武谈判桌。

The approach appears to be moving ahead, with a bevy of UN sanctions and unilateral US sanctions being passed in September, including an executive order that penalizes any company or person doing business with North Korea by either cutting off their access to the US financial system or freezing their assets -- or potentially both.

行动看起来在取得进展，联合国的制裁方案和美国的单边制裁方案在9月份都被通过，它包括一个处罚任何与北朝鲜做生意的公司的行政命令，可以切断它们与美国金融体系的接口，也可以冻结它们的固定资产。

Washington now has the authority to punish countries and companies doing business with North Korea by basically cutting them off from the US economy, according to Wall, the Washington-based international trade lawyer.
The next step, he says, will be proving it.
"There is going to have to be some action taken on this executive order to show that we really mean what we say in terms of cutting off business with North Korea," Wall said. "If we don't do that, then this will just be a paper tiger. It won't really be effective."

“华盛顿现在有权力通过将其与美国经济隔绝来处罚与北朝鲜做生意的国家和公司，”位于华盛顿的国际贸易律师霍尔说，“接下来会证明这一点，将会有一些按行政命令采取的行动表明我们真的想要照此执行，如果我们不做，那制裁就是一个纸老虎，它不会有任何作用。”