A local jewellery salesman was arrested for his alleged involvement in a crypto trading swindle, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Chan Wun Man said at a special press conference yesterday.
Chan identified the suspect as a 48-year-old man surnamed Wong. The male victim is from the mainland.
According to Chan, the victim came to Macau on Friday to help a friend exchange HK$1 million into 132,035 USDT cryptocurrencies. They agreed to do the deal at the jewellery shop in Nape where Wong worked.
Meanwhile, Wong claimed that since September a man had been regularly chatting with him about USDT in his shop. The man then introduced the victim’s friend to Wong and said that he would act as the middleman.
Chan said that during the transaction on Friday where the three of them were present in the shop, the man first provided Wong with an USDT account number so that he could transfer USDT to the victim. Wong then transferred 13 USDT to the account, which the victim successfully received. Nonetheless, Chan underlined that when Wong transferred the rest of the 132,035 USDT to the victim, no cryptocurrency was received in the victim’s account.
The trio got into a heated argument, after which the man fled. Wong hid the HK$1 million in his jewellery shop, while the victim reported the case to the police.
According to Chan, the police assume that the man provided Wong with his own USDT account number instead of the victim’s. The victim therefore did not receive USDT from Wong, instead the scammer received it and immediately transferred 13 USDT to the victim, creating the illusion that Wong had transferred 13 USDT to the victim.
Chan noted that the police are still investigating whether Wong was the accomplice of the scammer, while at the time of the press conference PJ officers were still determining the ownership of the HK$1 million retrieved from the shop.
Chan noted that the scammer had left Macau later that day through the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Wong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing a fraud charge, Chan said.
USDT stands for United States Dollar Tether.
United States Dollar Tether (USDT) is a blockchain-based cryptocurrency.
The local suspect is escorted by Judiciary Police (PJ) officers from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a vehicle yesterday.
– Photos: William Chan
The HK$1 million retrieved from the jewellery shop by the police as well as other pieces of evidence are displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday.
