Birmingham City owner Carson Yeung insisted he amassed his fortune through legitimate means including high-end hair salons as he testified for the first time Tuesday in his $93 million money-laundering trial in Hong Kong.

The hairdresser-turned-football tycoon from the southern Chinese city was arrested and charged in June 2011 with dealing in ill-gotten gains worth tens of millions of dollars.

The high-profile case put Yeung's wealth under intense spotlight as he faced mounting questions about his spectacular rise from a hairdresser to the owner of the English football club.

The prosecution has claimed around HK$720 million ($93 million) passed through bank accounts connected to the 53-year-old over a seven-year period, much of it from "unknown parties without any apparent reason".

That sum, they said, was "more than 300 times the total combined salary" of Yeung and his father.

In his defence on Tuesday, Yeung said he had made HK$20 million as a hairdresser between 1989 to 1994 when he ran five upmarket hair salons in hotels, including the five-star Peninsula Hotel.

Yeung, wearing a dark suit and appearing calm, said he was "very famous" hairdresser, claiming his salons catered to movie stars and businessmen but he disclosed no names.

Yeung, who has been free on bail since he was charged, also said he started a hotel in 1990 in the mainland Chinese city of Dongguan as a joint venture with his father.

"At the time, China's economy was starting to take off," Yeung said, adding that he received HK$1.44 million when the hotel was sold in 1994.

Yeung also claimed he set up a property agency, which from 1994 to 1997 promoted properties in southeast Asian countries including Thailand and Malaysia to clients from Hong Kong.

Yeung's counsel has previously said a "significant portion" of his wealth came from legitimate stock investments.

Yeung, who was little known prior to his emergence in English football, took control of Birmingham City in October 2009 in an £81 million ($130 million) takeover from David Sullivan and David Gold, now the co-owners of West Ham.

The club's fortunes have gone downhill since then. They were relegated from the Premier League in 2011, three months after winning the League Cup.

Yeung's money-laundering trial is set to resume on Wednesday.