Police in Hong Kong on Friday arrested 68 people suspected of providing their bank accounts for money laundering of telephone deception proceeds, a police spokesman said Friday.

Crime syndicates placed newspaper advertisements targeting people seeking quick money and respondents were told to open bank accounts to collect and launder the proceeds of telephone deceptions, according to the police.

Officers raided 210 locations, making the 68 arrests in an operation ending Friday. All have been released on bail pending further investigations.

In Hong Kong, money laundering warrants 14 years in jail and a fine of 5 million HK dollars (about 641,000 U.S. dollars).

So far this year, 37 account-holders have been convicted of money-laundering in Hong Kong, where 1,409 reported telephone deception cases in the first nine months of 2006, resulting in 19. 6 million HK dollars (about 2.5 million U.S. dollars) of losses.

Source: Xinhua