Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said during a special press conference yesterday that a 40-year-old local jobless man was arrested on Wednesday when entering Macau through the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge (HZMB) checkpoint for cheating three local men out of a total of 340,000 patacas and 100,000 yuan (about 11,901 patacas) separately under the guise of an investment and attractive exchange rate scheme.
According to Lei, the Judiciary Police received a report from a victim in July last year that he had seen the suspect’s post on a social media platform claiming that investing in a waterproofing project could earn him a profit of about 15 to 20 percent, so he invested 5,000 patacas in the project, after which he initially received a “profit” of about 1,000 patacas. Lei noted that the victim had then invested in the project many times between August and December 2021.
In October 2021, Lei said, the suspect had requested the victim to invest 300,000 patacas in a renovation project of a residential unit, adding that the suspect had promised him that he could earn a profit of 90,000 patacas once the renovation was completed. With “a considerable profit” in mind, the victim transferred 300,000 patacas to the suspect’s bank account.
Lei pointed out that the victim had transferred another 90,000 patacas in December 2021 to the suspect’s bank account for investing in another residential unit’s renovation project, for which he was promised to be able to earn a profit of 6,000 patacas.
As the victim did not receive his investment back and the “guaranteed” profits by April last year, he told the suspect to give him all the money back, but eventually only received 50,000 patacas, according to Lei, who added that the victim reported to the police that he had been defrauded out of 340,000 patacas.
Meanwhile, Lei said that during the investigation, the Judiciary Police found that the suspect was also involved in a currency exchange scam, adding that the scam’s two victims reported separately to the police in July 2022 that they had been cheated by the suspect out of 80,000 yuan and 12,847 yuan each through a social media platform.
Under questioning, the suspect admitted that he defrauded the trio out of the money. The suspect insisted that he had planned to return all the money to the victims, however, he claimed, before he could do so he gambled away all the money, according to Lei.
Lei said that the suspect, also surnamed Lei, was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge involving a considerable sum of money.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the hooded currency exchange and investment scammer to a PJ vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Yuki Lei
