A local woman and two men, one from the mainland and the other from Macau, were arrested last Wednesday for their alleged involvement in two sham marriages, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheong Heon Fan said at a regular press conference yesterday.
According to Cheong, the police officers suspected a sham marriage after receiving a “family reunion” visa application. They then requested the three suspects go to a police station for questioning, leading to the discovery of the case, Cheong said.
Cheong said that the trio comprises a 40-year-old local jobless woman surnamed Chio, a 47-year-old local man surnamed Kou, a renovation worker, and a 41-year-old male electrician surnamed Liang, who obtained a Macau ID after marrying Chio.
Cheong added that the police had still not located a 38-year-old mainland suspect surnamed Liu at the time of the press conference yesterday.
1st sham marriage in 2006
Cheong said that Chio and Kou were in a relationship and had moved in together when the first sham marriage arrangement took place. Kou introduced his former colleague Liang to Chio, and they got married in 2006, Cheong noted. Cheong said Chio and Liang were divorced in 2011 after Liang obtained his Macau ID card in 2010, adding that Chio and Kou received a total of 30,000 patacas from Liang in payment for the sham marriage.
According to Cheong, Chio and Kou had a son in 2011 during her marriage to Liang. However, Liang had a son with Lai also in 2011, who was his girlfriend at the time, even though Liang was still married to Chio, Cheong added.
After Liang got his Macau ID, he married his mainland girlfriend Lai in 2012, Cheong said. Lai gave birth to another son and a daughter in 2012 and 2015 respectively, and eventually, got her Macau ID in 2021, Cheong pointed out.
2nd sham marriage
Chio met an intermediary on social media in 2021 who said that Liu (the suspect) promised to pay her 200,000 yuan for marrying him, according to Cheong. Cheong noted that after marrying Liu, Chio received 100,000 yuan from Liu who said he would pay the rest of the money after obtaining his Macau ID.
According to Cheong, the incident came to light because Chio applied for the family reunion visa for Liu, who had never lived with her, and his two sons to settle in Macau. Cheong added that Liu would not be able to obtain Macau residency as the sham marriage was discovered by the police. Cheong said that Chio did not have any information about the intermediary, adding that the intermediary’s identity and the case were still under investigation at the time of the press conference.
Cheong noted that the trio have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing document forgery charges.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows two PSP officers escorting the three sham marriage suspects to a police station.
