The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a local woman on Monday for defrauding 10 people out of 2,334,300 patacas between 2016 and this year by claiming that her beauty salon was making a profit and persuading them to invest in the business, PJ spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Ho, the suspect is a 55-year-old woman surnamed Leong. She told the police that she’s the former owner of the salon. She sold the business in April. The 10 victims comprise eight locals and two non-resident workers, who had been Leong’s customers. None of their personal information was released by the spokesman. The police did not reveal the victims’ gender.
According to Ho, the investment fraud was committed in the salon in Rua do Almirante Costa Cabral between June 2016 and February this year. Leong separately told the 10 customers that her salon was making a profit every month and persuaded them to invest in the company and become shareholders.
According to Ho, the victims gave Leong the money but their names were not registered in the company’s business registration documents.
According to Ho, the 10 victims invested between 90,000 patacas and 430,000 patacas from 2016. Some victims were persuaded to invest more than 90,000 patacas as Leong claimed that the salon started to operate at a loss after they became shareholders. Moreover, Leong only paid several thousand patacas to two of the victims each as part of the salon’s purported profit.
The spokesman said that in April, some victims discovered that Leong had transferred the ownership of her business. The 10 victims were unable to contact Leong afterwards. They separately reported the case to different police stations, according to Ho.
The police intercepted Leong at the Barrier Gate checkpoint when she was about to leave the city at about 8:45 p.m. on Monday. Leong admitted to the fraud and told the police that she gambled away some of the ill-gotten money in local casinos and also repaid her debts.
Moreover, the police discovered two new investment contracts in the suspect’s home in Rua da Tercena. Apparently, according to the police, Leong prepared the contracts for fraudulent activities in the future. Moreover, text messages on her mobile phone showed that she had already persuaded a number of people to invest in the salon, even though she didn’t own it anymore, according to the spokesman.
Leong was transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) yesterday for further questioning and possible arraignment on an aggravated fraud charge, according to Ho.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded fraud suspect to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters yesterday. Photo: Kristy Chan
