Woman loses drug laundering appeal

File photo / Bay of Plenty Times

A Chinese woman who laundered about $700,000 for her drug dealer boyfriend lost an appeal against her jail sentence today.

Xiaonan Zhang, 27, was sentenced to 4-1/2 years imprisonment after being found guilty of four money laundering charges.

She appealed to the Court of Appeal on the basis that the sentence was excessive and allowed too little discount for personal factors.

But the judges rejected Zhang's claims as she had already been given a "generous deduction of 12 months imprisonment" for her remorse, previous good record, and the burden of serving a prison sentence in New Zealand, while her family lived in China.

The court was told Zhang originally moved to New Zealand in 2000 to further her education. In 2006 she became romantically involved with Jianying Ma, a major New Zealand drug dealer, and was enticed into the profitable world of drug dealing.

She laundered about $700,000 through her bank account and an associated credit card account, which enabled her to retire from her accounts assistant role in March 2008.

After searching Ma's Auckland property, police found Zhang to be in possession of a $50,000 Volkswagen and a large quantity of designer clothes.

Zhang also originally appealed against her conviction, but it was later abandoned.

- NZPA