Three locals and a woman from the mainland have been arrested for providing their bank accounts to a gang for money laundering, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said during a special press conference yesterday.
The three local suspects are surnamed Chio, Choi and Leong. Chio and Choi are male electricians, while Leong told the police that she’s jobless. The mainland suspect surnamed Mo is a waitress. All of them are in their thirties.
According to Leng, the police received a report from a local victim earlier this month saying that he had fallen victim to an online cryptocurrency investment scam. Between mid-June and last week, he followed a fraudster’s instructions to transfer a total of 650,000 patacas to five local bank accounts in 15 separate transactions. The victim was unable to retrieve his money and lost contact with the scammer.
The police soon identified the bank account owners. During the investigation, Chio on Monday went to the Judiciary Police to enquire about the status of his frozen bank account, while also informing the police of his accomplices’ identities. Subsequently, the police summoned the other three suspects for questioning. The quartet refused to cooperate.
Leng noted that Chio’s role was the contact person for the gang. He was tasked with facilitating the transfer of fraudulent funds into bank accounts and received a 12 percent commission of the transferred funds. Chio also enlisted the other three suspects to partake in money laundering activities.
Leng added that Chio and Choi were implicated in several other fraud cases such as “Guess Who I Am” and online sextortion scams. They were suspected to be involved in laundering over 370,000 patacas for fraudsters.
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing money laundering and fraud charges, according to Leng.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the four money laundering suspects to a police vehicle outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: William Chan
