About 200 victims possibly defrauded out of HK$280 million
Two of three male suspects were arrested by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Tuesday for pretending to represent a VIP room in a local casino and cheating at least 18 people out of HK$27 million, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon told reporters at a special press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, the three men claimed that they were representatives of a VIP room in Cotai but actually were just one of the VIP room’s major account holders and had signed a cooperation agreement with its owner.
Leng said that the trio owned a company that, however, did not hold a proper licence to operate as a junket, adding that the company started operating in October 2019 but was closed down on September 29 last year.
Leng underlined that the threesome used their bogus status as representatives to attract customers to deposit large sums of money with them, promising a monthly interest rate of 1 percent.
Leng noted that since last September 18 people had told the police that they were unable to withdraw the money they had deposited with the trio’s company. After a preliminary investigation, Leng said, the police were able to locate and arrest two of the three suspects on Tuesday.
The 18 confirmed victims comprise seven locals, 10 mainlanders and a Hong Kong resident.
Leng said that the two local suspects are surnamed Chan and Lam, aged 39 and 30 respectively. Leng pointed out that Chan claimed to be a businessman but that he was actually the executive director of the company, while Lam said he was a “white-collar” worker who, however, was the deputy director of the company. Leng said that both refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Meanwhile, Leng pointed out that at the defunct company’s office in Nape the police were able to seize many documents, electronic gadgets, casino chips worth HK$500,000, HK$13,000 in cash and other items, showing strong evidence that they were engaged in a fraud case. Leng said that the mastermind of the scam was still on the run at the time of the press conference.
Moreover, Leng said that according to the company’s documents, the police discovered that the company had about 200 customers who were possibly defrauded out of a total HK$280 million.
According to Leng, most of the money has been either spent on the daily operation of the company or was spent by members of the syndicate. Leng noted that most of the money was received between 2020-2021, adding that two victims claimed that they had received three months of interest after depositing the money with the company. Leng pointed out that the 18 victims were scammed out of between HK$3,800 to HK$12.5 million each.
Leng underlined that even though the documents seized from the office contained private information about approximately 200 clients, the police still needed to investigate the case in more detail to gain a better understanding of how many victims there are in total.
After the press conference, the police transferred Chan and Lam to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of membership of a criminal organisation and fraud involving a considerably large amount of money.
Two people are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters to a vehicle outside the building yesterday. Photo: Prisca Tang
