High Court awards CAB costs after proceeds ruling involving Yan Yan Fan

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Mr Justice Alexander Owens awarded the Criminal Assets Bureau two-thirds of its legal costs in the High Court on 19 June 2024, after an earlier proceeds-of-crime ruling involving Yan Yan Fan and Guang Ying Wang. The judge said the bureau had not won everything and its action contained one improper element.

Earlier that month, applying the civil balance-of-probabilities standard, the judge had declared dozens of luxury items and about €146,000 linked to Fan and Wang to be proceeds of crime. Wang did not contest the case. Fan, who represented herself, denied involvement in crime.

The judge said the bureau alleged that the pair were in league with other Chinese nationals operating cannabis grow houses and that bank accounts had been used to launder illegitimate income. It also alleged that Fan sent luxury goods to China using a surrogate-shopping method, with the outflows matched by transfers from her parents to Ireland.

In his earlier judgment, Owens said Fan had a significant link to a property where a cannabis grow house was found in 2012. Fan said her business partner had put in a sub-tenant responsible for the operation, but the judge found it hard to credit her evidence that she was unaware of what was happening upstairs.

The judge also found some information the bureau relied on to link Fan with criminality unconvincing, including its proofs about the value of 96 designer goods seized in 2021. He accepted her assertion that some were valueless or presents that should be returned.

On 19 June, Fan told the court she had not committed a crime and complained that reporting had made her “famous even more than Gerry Hutch”. Owens said he could not do anything about the press and suggested she not read the newspaper she complained about.

This report covers an earlier stage of the case. Later developments are not reported here.