The Hong Kong neighborhood of Wan Chai may be home to the most eclectic and densest concentration of US-sanctioned enterprises anywhere on the planet.
In less space than a square mile, you've got offices tied to: an alleged financier for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group; an individual accused of helping Iran acquire millions of dollars of military equipment in violation of US sanctions; a man accused of helping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro plunder his country's resources; and a company that allegedly opened a bank in North Korea in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions. As if that wasn't enough, there's also an office tied to a powerful Southeast Asian militia and a casino mogul accused of trafficking drugs, wildlife and even humans.
Walk these streets on the northern part of Hong Kong Island by day, however, and you'll likely see well-dressed professionals out to lunch. At night, it's twenty-somethings getting drunk in rowdy bars — not drug lords slinging kilos of methamphetamine or gun runners trying to sell crates of AK-47s.
That's because all five offices appear to be front companies.
Front companies are not inherently illegal. They are legitimate corporations without significant assets or active business operations that can be used to conceal illegal or unsavory transactions, evade taxes and generally avoid scrutiny. Essentially, they are near-empty offices in tall towers seldom, if ever, visited by their owners.
But the five companies all appear to exist for one reason: to evade the watchful eye of American law enforcement.
