A mainlander’s bank account has been frozen after exchanging Hong Kong dollars into yuan with an illegal currency exchange dealer at a casino in Cotai on June 1, reporting a loss of over 300,000 yuan to the police, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said at a press conference yesterday.
According to Leng, the male suspect surnamed Wang is a 23-year-old mainlander, who told the police that he is a car mechanic.
According to Leng, the victim won some money in a casino last month, and he wished to exchange HK$320,000 into yuan and deposit it into his mainland bank account.
Therefore, introduced by a woman, the victim contacted Wang, an illegal currency exchanger, to meet him in a hotel guestroom in a hotel in Cotai, Leng said.
Wang transferred the 300,240 yuan into the victim’s account, according to Leng, adding that the victim gave him the HK$320,000 cash after receiving the transfer notification.
However, the victim later discovered that his mainland account had been frozen by the bank due to the receipt of illegal funds, according to Leng.
The victim suspected he had been cheated and reported the case to the police when he saw Wang in a casino in Cotai on Saturday.
The victim told the police that he suspected Wang had deliberately deposited the “dirty money” into his account, according to Leng.
PJ officers arrested Wang recently, and he was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing charges of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money, according to Leng.
The police are still trying to trace the whereabouts of the woman who was the intermediary in the case, Leng said.
Two smartphones seized from the suspect are displayed as pieces of evidence during yesterday’s press conference at the pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
