Three people who had fled to the mainland after being charged with involvement in a pyramid scheme in Macau were apprehended by mainland police some time ago and transferred to the Judiciary Police (PJ) early yesterday morning, PJ spokesman Lou Chan Fai said during a regular press conference yesterday.
The three suspects from the mainland comprise two men surnamed Li, aged 74 and 45 respectively, and a woman surnamed Chen, aged 66. They all claimed to be jobless.
According to Lou, four people from the mainland allegedly engaged in a pyramid scheme under the guise of “pure capital operation” in 2009. Lou noted that the company had no actual products or business operations but was simply used to lure local people into the scheme.
The quartet defrauded 10 people out of 1.5 million yuan (1.66 million patacas) between 2009 to 2012, prompting the victims to report the matter to the police. On January 27, 2022, after a trial at the Court of First Instance (TJB), the four defendants were found guilty and each sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison, Lou said, adding that their appeal to the Court of Second Instance (TSI) was turned down in April this year.
Lou noted that the police had already sent one of the suspects to the local prison earlier this year, while the Lis and Chen were lying low in the mainland. Lou underlined that the mainland police arrested the 45-year-old Li in Guangxi and the 74-year-old Li and Chen in Zhongshan. They were transferred to the Judiciary Police yesterday for further investigation and subsequently sent to Coloane jail to start serving their sentences yesterday.
This undated pixelated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) yesterday shows two of the three suspects being escorted from a mainland police vehicle to a PJ vehicle at the Zhuhai-Macau border yesterday.
