A mainland man purporting to be the owner of an engineering company cheated a compatriot, whom he got to know at a local casino in May last year, out of a total of 1.3 million patacas by claiming that “after he exchanged foreign currencies, his mainland bank account was frozen by the mainland police, resulting in about 100 million yuan in his account not being available for use, but that he was in urgent need of money to pay emergency compensation for a workplace accident”, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong announced yesterday.
During yesterday’s regular press conference, Cheong noted that the suspect, aged 36, surnamed Cui, was arrested on Monday when he re-entered Macau via the Barrier Gate border checkpoint, adding that during the questioning of Cui it was confirmed that he didn’t run any company in the mainland.
The PJ investigation, according to Cheong, showed that, after their first meeting in a casino, the victim – a mainland woman in her fifties – became friends with Cui, who told her that he had an engineering company as well as a number of properties in the mainland. Afterwards, the two visited Macau’s tourist attractions and gambled in local casinos, during which, according to the investigation, Cui asked the victim to lend him money, promising that he would pay her back after his bank account was unfrozen, while he would also share his company’s profits with her in return once his business improved in the future.
Cheong quoted the victim as saying that she had handed over HK$330,000 in cash to Cui and transferred 637,000 yuan to a number of bank accounts designated by him, totalling 1.3 million patacas.
The victim did not report the case to the police until she lost contact with Cui in August last year.
Cheong noted that Cui has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of fraud involving a considerably large sum of money.
Loanshark nabbed after reporting loss of HK$40,000: police
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Police arrested a male loanshark from the mainland on Monday when he went to the PJ headquarters in Zape to report a loss of HK$40,000 in cash, Cheong said during the press conference.
According to Cheong, the suspect, aged 31, surnamed Lin, told the police in the wee hours of Monday that a mainland man, whom he had met in a casino’s smoking lounge in Cotai on Sunday, had “taken” his money. However, Cheong said, a follow-up PJ investigation showed that Lin had lent HK$50,000 to the gambler based on a deal of 10 percent of the winnings as “interest” and kept the gambler’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS) travel permit to Hong and Macau.
Cheong said that Lin has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office, facing a usury charge.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong poses during yesterday’s regular press conference.
– Photo: Yuki Lei
