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Note: Having travelled to Hong Kong from the Philippines, Noel Rambuyon (Defendant) attempted to present a bundle of 50 counterfeit travelers checks to a currency exchange in Hong Kong. On their face, each check was valued USD 1,000, approximately HKD 390,000 in total. Defendant was arrested on the scene and pled not guilty to one count of using false instruments. While the prosecution noted the poor quality of the checks, counsel for Defendant argued as a mitigating factor that the currency exchange did not “suffer loss or risk of loss”.

In its Reason for Sentence, the District Court of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Chan, J., sentenced Defendant to a prison term of two and one-half years.

The Judge noted that there was “no sentencing guideline [for] this kind of offense” although the statute apparently proscribed a maximum of fourteen years. One case cited by the Judge resulted in a three-year sentence imposed on a defendant convicted of using a “false bank draft of [USD]450,000”. The Judge noted another case where the defendants attempted to present a five billion euro copy standby letter of credit purportedly issued by HSBC, Hong Kong. Sentences imposed in that case ranged from three to three and one-half years. Noting the simple “modus operandi” in the present case and that Defendant had had a clear record in Hong Kong, the Judge sentenced Defendant to two and one-half years in prison.

[MJK]

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