Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 455), 1994

The Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 455) of Hong Kong was enacted in 1994 and amended by 2002.

The purposes of this Ordinance are

• to create new powers of investigation into organized crimes and certain other offences and into the proceeds of crime of certain offenders;
• provide for the confiscation of proceeds of crime;
• make provision in respect of the sentencing of certain offenders;
• create offences relating to the proceeds of crime or property representing the proceeds of crime;
• and for ancillary and connected matters.

Together with the Drug Trafficking (Recovery of Proceeds) Ordinance (Cap. 405), the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 455) provides for the tracing, freezing, confiscation and recovery of the proceeds of drug trafficking and other indictable offences respectively. The money laundering offences are found in section 25 of the Ordinance, which provides that it is a criminal offence to deal with property knowing, or having reasonable grounds to believe, that the property is the proceeds of drug trafficking or the proceeds of an indictable offence.