A Hong Kong man embezzled over 7.79 million patacas for personal use from a company that he and the victim co-owned, and his partner reported the case to the police, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said yesterday during a special press conference.
Lei noted that the 43-year-old suspect, surnamed Chan, joined the local victim’s construction company in 2019, and agreed to bring in construction projects in exchange for half of the equity of the victim’s company. Lei said that Chan brought in a large-scale hotel project, which gave the company income of over 150 million patacas. Lei added that the victim, however, discovered in May 2019 that Chan had used 2.03 million patacas of the company’s cash to pay off his own debts. Meanwhile, Lei pointed out, the victim also discovered that previously Chan had deposited three cheques, worth 5.76 million patacas in total, into his personal account, adding that the suspect claimed that the money was for the daily operation of the company. Lei said that this claim was neither supported by documents nor evidence, adding that the police were still tracing the whereabouts of the cheques.
According to Lei, the suspect was arrested when he entered Macau from the mainland via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge checkpoint on Monday. Lei said that the suspect admitted that he had used the company’s cash to pay off personal debts but he denied that he had embezzled the company’s money as the suspect said the victim had agreed to let him have the money to pay off his personal debts.
Lei said the evidence showed, however, that the suspect had embezzled the company, so he was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday morning, facing an abuse of trust charge, involving a considerably large amount of money.
Three Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the embezzlement suspect to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters. Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
