A former Hong Kong fencer has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison for laundering more than HK$10 million (US$1.27 million), saying in mitigation that he opened the mule accounts to “make a quick buck”.

The District Court on Tuesday heard the guilty pleas from Chiu Man-to, 26, who admitted to laundering a total of HK$10.6 million through five bank accounts under his name between August 4 and 27, 2021.

Chiu, who was a professional athlete until 2024, said in his mitigation that he saw a post on social media recruiting individuals to open bank accounts for others to “run their businesses”.

The defendant told Deputy District Judge Peter Yu Chun-cheung that he was sceptical at first but went on to lend his accounts to the fraudsters, who promised to return 1 per cent of the revenue to him.

The court heard that the fraudsters, whose identities were not disclosed in the current proceedings, scammed at least two victims out of more than HK$8 million. Chiu’s accounts were used to launder part of the victims’ losses.

Court documents revealed that Chiu profited about HK$4,000 from the transactions.

He admitted to five counts of money laundering.