Two men have separately been arrested for currency exchange-related fraud, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said during a regular press conference yesterday.
In the first case, the local male suspect, aged 37, surnamed Man, works as a driver. The victim, whose surname was not released, is a mainlander under the age of 30.
According to Cheong, the victim encountered a man at a casino last October and engaged in a currency transaction, where the victim gave HK$530,000 to the man while he transferred 500,000 yuan to the victim’s account online.
A few days later, the victim received a phone call from the mainland police informing him about suspicious transactions detected in his account, which subsequently led to its freezing. The victim reported the case to the Judiciary Police later that month.
The police later discovered that Man was the individual who had driven the currency dealer to the hotel. Man was apprehended in Zape on Tuesday.
Under questioning, Man told the police that he was paid HK$1,000 to drive the currency dealer to the casino. He claimed to be unaware of the dealer’s involvement in illegal activities.
In the second case, the 34-year-old mainland suspect surnamed Zhu told the police that he’s a businessman. The victim, also from the mainland, was a friend of Zhu’s.
According to Cheong, last July the victim and Zhu engaged in a currency exchange transaction at a casino in Taipa. The victim transferred 45,000 yuan to Zhu. However, Zhu claimed that he did not have any money on him at that moment and needed to withdraw cash from an ATM. Taking advantage of the victim’s unawareness, Zhu fled the scene. The victim subsequently reported the incident to the police.
Zhu was arrested at the airport checkpoint on Monday. He denied the accusation.
Zhu and Man have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing fraud charges, Cheong said.
