A 42-year-old mainlander was arrested for scamming a local woman out of HK$4.35 million in a purported currency exchange deal, with the connivance of a 43-year-old local shop owner who transferred the victim’s money to a mainland bank account, a Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said in a special conference yesterday.
According to the spokesperson, the mainland suspect, surnamed Li, who told the police that he works as a chef, has been a friend of the female victim for several years through business relations, while the shop owner is a local man surnamed Wong.
According to the spokesperson, on Tuesday Li told the victim that a “VIP customer” was going to exchange a great amount of money, proposing that she give him HK$4.35 million, promising her a “profit” of HK$24,500.
The victim was persuaded by Li to take part in the deal and took the money, accompanied by him, to the lobby of a casino resort in Cotai to hand over the cash to another man, which the PJ spokesperson identified as Li’s accomplice, who told the victim to wait outside the casino so that he could give the cash to the purported “VIP customer”.
Afterwards, the victim lost contact with both Li and his accomplice, after which she suspected that she had been deceived by them, so she reported the case to the police.
Upon investigation, PJ officers discovered that Li’s accomplice had transferred HK$2.4 million through Wong’s shop in the casino resort and then left Macau.
The police later arrested Li. The spokesperson said there were strong indications that he defrauded his “friend”.
PJ officers retrieved a HK$2.4 million of the ill-gotten cash from Wong’s shop, while Wong confessed to receiving a HK$90,000 “commission” for transferring the funds, the spokesperson said.
Li and Wong refused to cooperate with the PJ officers, the spokesperson said, adding that the police were still tracing the whereabouts of the rest of the defrauded money and the whereabouts of other possible suspects in the case, including Li’s accomplice.
Li was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a charge of fraud involving a considerably large amount of money, while Wong faces a charge of possession of stolen goods.
Evidence seized from the fraud suspect ts such as two smartphones and cash is displayed at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
