A local woman was arrested on Thursday for cheating at least 110 people out of more than HK$223 million by offering them a purported high-interest deposit plan, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a regular press conference on Friday.
The 51-year-old suspect surnamed Tai told the police that she is a businesswoman.
According to Leng, PJ officers were informed by a local man in June 2021 that he had been persuaded by someone in 2019 to deposit HK$200,000 in a casino-based operation allegedly linked to a VIP room, for which he would receive eight percent interest each month. The man said that initially he received the promised interest. However, he told the police, he stopped receiving any interest in January 2020. The victim also lost contact with two people-in-charge of the “casino-based operation linked to a VIP room” at the same time, Leng said.
The victim reported the case to the police in April of the same year after he discovered that the “casino-based operation” had ceased.
Leng said that during the investigation, PJ officers received further reports from 12 people that they had been defrauded in the same way.
Leng noted that the 13 victims had been cheated out of between HK $200,000 and HK $6.5 million each, bringing the total amount to over HK $17.21 million.
Upon further investigation, PJ officers discovered that the two people-in-charge who claimed that they were operating a VIP room were not, as they had claimed, gaming promoters, the statement said, adding that they used victims’ deposits to pay other depositors’ interest, so as to draw more people into the purported high-interest deposit plan. The Judiciary Police estimated that at least 110 victims were attracted by the “high-interest deposit plan”, involving deposits of more than HK$223 million.
This kind of scheme is called a Ponzi scheme, according to Wikipedia, a Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors. Named after Italian businessman Charles Ponzi, the scheme leads victims to believe that profits are coming from legitimate business activities, (e.g., product sales or successful investments), and they remain unaware that other investors are the source of funds.
According to Leng, PJ officers recently identified Tai as one of the suspects and asked her to report to the PJ headquarters for questioning on Thursday.
Under questioning, Tai admitted that she had been acting as a “lobbyist” to persuade people to deposit money in the “casino-based operation linked to a VIP room”, Leng said.
Leng noted that Tai was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on Thursday, facing a fraud charge involving a considerable sum of money.
The Judiciary Police are continuing their investigation to look for the other suspects who were still on the run at the time of the press conference, as well as the whereabouts of the fraudulently obtained money, Leng said, who did not reveal the exact number of possible suspects.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon addresses Friday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. Photo courtesy of TDM
