HONG KONG (AP) — The owner of England’s Birmingham soccer team is preparing to fight money-laundering charges against him in a case expected to go to trial next year.
The Hong Kong-based Carson Yeung was charged in June with five counts of money laundering involving more than $92 million.
Yeung’s lawyer, Clive Grossman, said after a pretrial review Wednesday that a trial date would be set in the next few days and could be as soon as May.
Yeung acquired Birmingham in October 2009 in a takeover then worth $130 million. The club was relegated from the Premier League last season.
The charges against Yeung involve money deposited in bank accounts from January 2001 to December 2007.
