US lawmakers say Hong Kong is becoming hub for financial crime

Lawmakers successful the U.S. House of Representatives person asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to rethink ties with Hong Kong's banking sector, saying the metropolis has go a apical determination for wealth laundering and sanctions evasion.

Hong Kong has turned into a hub for galore violations of U.S. commercialized controls, including export of controlled Western exertion to Russia and the instauration of beforehand companies to bargain Iranian oil, the bipartisan leaders of the House of Representatives Select Committee connected the Chinese Communist Party said successful a missive to Yellen.

The letter, scheduled to beryllium publically released connected Monday, said that Hong Kong has shifted from being a trusted planetary fiscal halfway to a captious subordinate successful the deepening authoritarian axis of China, Iran, Russia and North Korea.

"We indispensable present question whether longstanding U.S. argumentation towards Hong Kong, peculiarly towards its fiscal and banking sector, is appropriate," a transcript of the missive seen by Reuters said.

The letter, signed by Republican John Moolenaar, who chairs the committee, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committee's ranking Democrat, cited probe that shows astir 40% of goods shipped from Hong Kong to Russia successful 2023 were high-priority items specified arsenic semiconductors that Russia could usage to prosecute its warfare successful Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department did not instantly respond to Reuters' requests for comments. Hong Kong's commercialized bureau successful New York could not beryllium instantly reached for comment.