Four male members of an illegal currency exchange gang were arrested on Monday for defrauding at least seven gamblers out of more than 180,000 yuan (222,000 patacas) this month, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman said at a special press conference yesterday.
The four suspects from the mainland aged between 32 and 52, are surnamed Liu, Guan, Gao and Wen. They told the police that they came to Macau to engage in illegal currency exchange activities.
According to Chong, the Judiciary Police started to investigate after receiving reports about three separate fraud cases involving illegal currency exchange activities on Sunday and Monday in two casinos in Cotai.
Four victims of the three cases told the police that they had met a man in the casino who offered to exchange currency for them.
After the victims had transferred their money online to the man’s account, he told them that he needed to go somewhere else to get the cash for them but never came back, leaving his accomplices (Liu, Guan and Wen) at the scene.
Chong said that the Judiciary Police discovered that the suspect in the three cases is the same person and was still on the run at the time of Monday’s press conference.
PJ officers identified the main suspect’s four accomplices and arrested them separately in the early hours of Monday in several guestrooms in the casino-hotel resort. The quartet denied committing any crimes and claimed that they had been merely hired to assist in a currency exchange business. They also claimed that before coming to Macau they had not known each other.
According to Chong, the Judiciary Police believe that the man on the run is the kingpin of the gang who had hired several mainlanders to come to Macau to talk casino gamblers into using the gang’s illegal currency exchange “service”.
After the victims transferred the money online, the kingpin left the scene, leaving his accomplices behind. The four accomplices claimed that they didn’t know anything about the gang and its illegal activities. Chong said the police believe that the quartet claimed ignorance in order to avoid legal responsibility for their criminal activities.
Chong said the gang started operating early this month and committed at least five crimes and defrauded at least seven victims out of approximately 188,900 yuan. At the time of the press conference the Judiciary Police were still looking for the kingpin and other possible suspects as well as the whereabouts of the gang’s ill-gotten gains.
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of fraud and organised crime, according to Chong.
The four hooded suspects are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a PJ vehicle yesterday. Photo courtesy TDM
