A man from the mainland and a man from Hong Kong were arrested on Monday for their alleged involvement in a counterfeit money case, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Cheong Kim Fong said in a special conference yesterday.
The 24-year-old Hong Kong suspect surnamed Yu and the 38-year-old man from the mainland surnamed Fang told the police that they are jobless.
According to Cheong, a casino in Cotai reported to the police on Monday that Yu had attempted to buy gaming chips with 409 counterfeit HK$1,000 notes. During the procedure of verifying the banknotes, the cashier discovered that none of them were genuine as there were differences in colour and paper quality compared to genuine ones. The police arrived at the scene and arrested Yu, who told the police that it was Fang who brought the bogus money to Macau. The police arrested Fang in the same casino half an hour later. The police confirmed that the 409 HK$1,000 notes were fake, with four groups of serial numbers, and obvious differences in colour and paper quality.
The duo claimed that they had been hired by an unknown figure from the mainland to “transfer” the counterfeit money to Macau, for which each was promised a “commission” of 3,000 yuan.
Both suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday, facing charges of transferring counterfeit currency.
A Judiciary Police (PJ) officer shows reporters the bogus HK$1,000 notes displayed in a press room of the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Ada Lei
