A total of 10 suspects, comprising five locals and five mainlanders, were arrested recently for their alleged involvement in four sham marriages, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Lam Keong said at a regular press conference on Monday.
According to Lam, the Public Security Police and the Macau Identification Services Bureau (DSI) had earlier received anonymous letters about four people from Guangdong province who allegedly had obtained Macau ID cards through fake marriages so that their children could acquire Macau residency status.
After investigation, the Public Security Police discovered that the 10 suspects were involved in four sham marriages. The bogus marriages involved sisters, sister and brother, brothers, cousins, couples and people who lived together but were not married.
The five local suspects comprise four women and a man aged between 50 and 60. Two of the women are surnamed Hong and Choi. Two women are surnamed Che, one of whom works as a cleaner for the Fire Services Bureau (CB). The male suspect is surnamed Leong. The other five suspects from the mainland comprise four men and a woman (three men surnamed Xie and a man and a woman both surnamed Zhong) who are in their fifties and sixties. Four of them had obtained local ID cards through fake marriages so that three of their children were able to acquire local residency status.
Lam said the Public Security Police arrested the four “fake couples” one at a time recently. The female local suspect surnamed Hong admitted that she had received 20,000 yuan in 2006 as “compensation” for the sham marriage, while the other suspects denied they had received any money for the sham marriages.
Lam said that the police are continuing their investigation into the cases and are looking for two other female mainland suspects who were still on the run at the time of Monday’s press conference.
The 10 suspects have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing document forgery charges, according to Lam.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) on Monday shows PSP officers escorting the 10 sham marriage suspects to a PSP vehicle.
