Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau’s appeal against money laundering conviction rejected - while he spends HK$3 billion on a London skyscraper

Macau’s top court has rejected Hong Kong property tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung’s appeal against his money laundering conviction in a bribe-for-land scheme involving former Macau public works minister Ao Man-long.

Lau, Hong Kong’s fifth richest man, had sought to quash the conviction on the grounds that a lower court had not used the same principles it had applied in a previous bribery case that also involved Ao, the Macau Daily News reported on Tuesday.

In the previous case, the defendant was eventually released by the court as the maximum penalty for her money laundering charge was less than three years’ jail.

READ MORE: Fugitive tycoon Joseph Lau Luen-hung sells Hong Kong office tower for record HK$12.5bn a day after buying US$48m diamond

Macau’s court of final appeal last Friday dismissed Lau’s appeal as his case was different from the previous one in that Lau’s offence could lead to a jail term of up to eight years, the newspaper reported.

Lau, worth an estimated $14.8million, and fellow Hong Kong businessman Steven Lo Kit-sing were each handed a jail term of five years and three months by a Macau court in 2014 after being convicted of bribery and money laundering.

Neither has served time behind bars due to the lack of an extradition treaty between Hong Kong and Macau.

Seemingly unfazed by his rejected court appeal bid, Lau continues to expand his property empire.