A 36-year-old prison guard was reported by a mainland investor and three local shareholders of two Southeast Asian groceries to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) on April 16 last year for allegedly defrauding them out of over 2.8 million patacas in goods and cash by transferring the ownership of the two shops to his mother for just 5,000 patacas and the shops’ working capital of about 750,000 patacas to the bank account of his wife’s trading company, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Ho, the male suspect, surnamed Wong, is a local resident who opened the groceries with his 35-year-old sister and the four victims in 2019 and 2020 in the city centre and Rua da Praia do Manduco respectively. When the second shop opened they also set up a joint bank account to manage the shops’ working capital.
Ho noted that the Public Prosecutions Office referred the case to the Judiciary Police on April 23 last year for follow-up investigation.
Ho said that the victims told the police that without their agreements, Wong had transferred the shops’ ownership to his mother surnamed Leong for a mere 5,000 patacas through a letter of power of attorney that the mainlander had signed in 2019 authorising Wong to manage the two shops.
On the same day, Wong also transferred around 750,000 patacas from the joint bank account to his wife’s business bank account, so the victims reported the case and losses of more than 2.8 million patacas in goods and cash to the police, Ho added.
The Judiciary Police apprehended Wong and his wife at their flat in Taipa on Monday, while summoning Wong’s sister and mother to the PJ headquarters for questioning.
Wong told the police that he had had a business dispute with the four victims, so in order to avoid the business being impacted by the row, he privately transferred the shops’ ownership to his mother. At the same time, he admitted that he and his sister signed bank documents to transfer the working capital from the joint bank account to his wife’s account.
Wong insisted that the money was mainly used for shareholders’ dividends and to pay for the shops’ goods and rent, according to Ho.
Ho noted that Wong, his sister and his wife were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday, where Wong and his sister face charges of fraud and document forgery, as well as an abuse of trust charge involving a large amount of money, while his wife faces a money laundering charge.
The three hooded fraud suspects, including a prison guard, are escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Nape to a vehicle yesterday.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
