Two men and a woman were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly laundering nearly HK$9 million through two local companies in 2017, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lai Chio Hong said at a special press conference yesterday.
The three suspects are a 62-year-old male retiree surnamed Chen from the mainland, a 34-year-old jobless local man surnamed Chan and a 31-year-old local woman surnamed Chan who works for a VIP casino room in Cotai. The two Chans are not related, Lai said.
According to Lai, the Financial Intelligence Office (GIF) noticed two suspicious transactions in the bank accounts of two local companies in late 2017. The Public Prosecutions Office (MP) started to investigate and transferred the case to the Judiciary Police to follow-up. PJ officers discovered that the bank account of an arts and crafts trading company in the city centre had received two remittances totalling 113,000 euros (HK$1.05 million) from an Australian company in September 2017. Afterwards, the company director issued two cheques in order to withdraw the cash remitted from the account.
Lai said that a clothing trading company in Nape received a remittance of US$1 million (HK$7.8 million) from another company in Australia in October 2017, and then issued five cheques in order to withdraw the money from that account.
The two accounts’ local bank was later requested by an Australian bank to return the three remittances as the two Australian companies suspected that their accounts had been hacked.
The Judiciary Police discovered that the two companies between them issued seven cheques right after they had received the remittances to withdraw the money, and that some of the funds had been transferred out of Macau, according to Lai.
Lai said that the Judiciary Police discovered that the arts and crafts trading company had not had any business since it was set up in 2016. However, the company staff issued a sales contract after receiving the remittances from Australia, but the Judiciary Police believe that the contract was merely a cover-up, Lai said.
According to Lai, PJ officers questioned Chen and the male suspect surnamed Chan on Wednesday. Chen, who is a co-owner of the arts and crafts company, admitted that he had provided the details of his company account to a gang, for which he was paid HK$30,000.
Lai said Chan admitted that he received two cheques totalling HK$2.058 million from Chen and deposited them into his own bank account. He then gave a gang member a cheque for the amount, for which he was paid HK$12,000.
According to Lai, the Judiciary Police arrested the female suspect surnamed Chan in the VIP casino room in Cotai on the same day. Chan admitted that she had helped the gang deposit a HK$1.45 million cheque from one of the two companies into her bank account, but claimed that she didn’t receive any money for it. PJ officers seized HK$40,000 in suspected ill-gotten gains from her
Lai said the Judiciary Police were still looking for other possible suspects and the whereabouts of the money transferred to Macau by the two companies from Australia.
The trio were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing money-laundering and other charges.
The three hooded suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a vehicle yesterday. Photos: Iong Tat Choi
Evidence seized from the suspects such as four smartphones and HK$40,000 in cash is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
