The Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday the arrest of an illegal currency exchange dealer from the mainland in connection with a fraud and money laundering case involving HK$120,000.
According to PJ spokesman Chao Teng Hin, the Judiciary Police receive a report from a middle-aged man on March 3, saying that his bank account was frozen by the mainland police after he exchanged the Hong Kong dollars that he had won at a local casino into yuan with the assistance of the currency exchange dealer last month, resulting in a total loss of HK$120,000.
The Judiciary Police identified the suspect as a 27-year-old man surnamed Li. Chao noted that the Judiciary Police, with the assistance of the Public Security Police, arrested Li on Wednesday night when he was about to leave Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint.
Chao quoted the mainland victim as noting that the suspect had exchanged HK$120,000 into 111,600 yuan in his hotel guestroom on February 19, adding that he received a notification from his bank the next day that his account had been frozen for receiving fraudulently obtained money.
According to Chao, under questioning, Li refused to cooperate with the police. He has been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) after confirmation by the PJ investigation to have engaged in illegal currency exchange activities, fraud involving a considerable amount of money, and money laundering.
