While following up on a HK$9.7 million fraud case detected last year, the Judiciary Police (PJ) have uncovered recently that the mainland victim had stayed in Macau as a “non-resident worker” and obtained a driving licence to facilitate her husband’s engagement in an illegal currency exchange business here.
PJ spokesman Cheong Kim Fong announced details of the case at a special press conference on Friday.
On November 8 last year, the Judiciary Police received a report from a mainland woman about the loss of HK$9.7 million in casino chips, according to Cheong, who said that PJ officers taking up the case discovered that the “victim”, surnamed Ge, often drove her husband, surnamed Cui, to and from various local hotels and casinos. The officers also discovered that she had obtained a work permit (colloquially known as “blue card”) in July last year to work in an eatery in the city centre. However, it emerged that she had been working with her husband since obtaining the permit to make it more convenient for her and her husband to engage in illegal currency exchange deals in Macau.
In the wee hours of Thursday, the Judiciary Police began to keep the couple under surveillance which continued until the afternoon on that day, when Ge, as usual, picked up Cui and took him to a casino in Zape, where he exchanged 280,000 yuan into gambling chips worth HK$300,000 for two gamblers from the mainland, Cheong noted.
The Judiciary Police arrested the couple later that day at a flat in a residential building in Coloane, where PJ officers seized from a safe HK$2.8 million in cash believed to be used for currency exchange, as well as the couple’s car. Together with HK$200,000 in chips recovered from the two gamblers, the police seized a total of HK$3 million.
The Judiciary Police on that day also summoned Ge’s “boss” for questioning, during which the local man surnamed Chan admitted that he had assisted Ge in obtaining a blue card through a false employment contract, insisting that he had never received any “commission” for the “arrangement” from the couple.
The Judiciary Police believe that the couple had been engaged in illegal currency exchange deals for at least two months, Cheong said, adding that the duo refused to cooperate with the police.
The trio, aged between 22 and 43, were transferred on Friday to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for further investigation, where they are facing charges of involvement in illegal currency exchange activities, as well as charges of involvement in arranging fake employment.
Duo caught red-handed exchanging casino chips for gambler
Meanwhile, the Judiciary Police arrested also on Thursday two mainland men in their thirties for exchanging 19,350 yuan into casino chips worth HK$20,000 for a gambler at a casino in Cotai.
Under questioning, the duo, who were caught red-handed by PJ officers, admitted that they had been promised a “commission” of 30 yuan for every 10,000 yuan exchanged and a daily payment of 400 yuan.
This undated pixilated handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Friday shows PJ officers escorting the female suspect from the mainland in Cotai.
