Three men from the mainland were arrested last Monday for cheating two currency dealers out of 800,000 yuan, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a press conference on Monday.
The three suspects are a 31-year-old jobless man and a 45-year-old businessman who are both surnamed Li, as well as a 44-year-old man surnamed Chao who told the police that he works in a food company. Ho said that the trio entered Macau on October 5.
According to Ho, a security guard of a casino-hotel resort in Cotai reported to the Judiciary Police early on Monday that three suspects had cheated two local men in a currency exchange deal earlier that day. Ho said the suspects contacted the victims about a currency exchange deal. They met in a hotel restaurant in Cotai and agreed to exchange HK$1 million into 830,000 yuan. As the duo had previously done some deals with the suspects, they transferred 800,000 yuan online in two transactions to a designated account provided by the suspects. When the victims were transferring the remaining 30,000 yuan, the trio suddenly left the restaurant and ran towards the hotel lobby. The victims chased after them and the hotel security guards assisted them in stopping the suspects from leaving the hotel and reported the case to the police.
Under questioning, the trio denied committing the crime and claimed that the victims were involved in money laundering so they refused to give them the Hong Kong dollars in cash. However, the trio were unable to provide any evidence of money laundering by the duo, and nor did they carry any cash with them for the deal. The Judiciary Police later contacted a bank to freeze the 800,000 yuan in the account to which it had been transferred by the victims, Ho said.
The suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) last Tuesday, facing a fraud charge, according to Ho.
