A Hong Kong court on Monday found Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung guilty of five counts of money-laundering, completing the former hairdresser's fall from grace since taking over the English Championship club in 2009.
The 54-year-old businessman had denied laundering HK$720 million ($A104.75 million) from 2001-07 and repeatedly tried to halt proceedings during the trial, claiming irregularities.
Judge Douglas Yau, in a packed district court, criticised Yeung's "self-contradictory" testimony and said he was making it up as he went along.
"I find that he is someone who is prepared to, and did try to, lie whenever he saw the need to do so."
The tycoon appeared calm as the verdict was read out. He was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on Friday, and could face a maximum of seven years' jail.
Yeung was charged with ill-gotten gains in the southern Chinese city in June 2011, two years after acquiring the "Blues" in a STG81 million ($A153 million) takeover.
In February, Yeung resigned as chairman and executive director of Birmingham International Holdings Limited (BIHL), owner of the struggling second-tier club, but is still its largest shareholder.
Yau said there were reasonable grounds to believe multiple business dealings with which Yeung was involved had used funds which represented "proceeds of an indictable offence".
Yeung maintained he accumulated hundreds of millions of dollars through stock trading, hairdressing, business ventures in mainland China and a keen interest in gambling.
He said he made HK$20 million as a hairdresser from 1989-94, when he ran five upmarket hair salons in hotels including Hong Kong's five-star Peninsula Hotel, catering to movie stars and businessmen.
He also said he spent all of his time trading stocks after the 1998 Asian market crash, accumulating a stock portfolio of around HK$300 million by 2007.
Yeung told the court he made up to HK$30 million from gambling in Macau from 2004-08, saying he gambled as if he were running a business.
Yeung, whose Cantonese name is Yeung Ka-sing, emerged in 2007 with a bid for Birmingham. The takeover attempt failed when he missed the deadline to hand over money.
He quietly acquired a 29.9 per cent stake and, in 2009, Yeung's Grandtop International Holdings - which later became BIHL - bought the club from David Sullivan and David Gold, now owners of West Ham.
"I think a large majority of Birmingham City fans will be very happy about this because a lot of them see Carson as destroying the football club," Daniel Ivery, a Birmingham-based football blogger and author of an upcoming book about Yeung, said after the verdict.
"A lot of them now are very worried about what will happen next.
"Waking up to Carson being guilty, what a brilliant way to start a Monday!" Birmingham season ticket holder @hannah_bcfc wrote in a Twitter post.
