The Judiciary Police (PJ), in conjunction with the Hong Kong Police Force, have busted a cross-border fraud syndicate that operated a coffee investment scam with total losses of HK$94 million (96.7 million patacas) and 3.6 million patacas, PJ spokesman Chao Teng Hin said during a special press conference at the PJ Headquarters in Zape yesterday.
According to Chao, police in Hong Kong and Macau have arrested eight suspects involved in the case. PJ officers arrested two local businesswomen, aged 52 and 64, surnamed Hoi and Ho respectively.
PJ spokesman Kou Peng Hong said that the coffee shop, Fun Coffee, opened in the Avenida de Horta e Costa area in November 2025, attracting customers by offering “free coffee tasting”.
Hoi and Ho promoted a fictitious “AI Smart Coffee Ecosystem” investment project to guests, claiming high returns, Kou said. He added that the duo also used a pyramid scheme structure, encouraging participants to recruit others by offering a reward of 300 to 900 patacas for each successful referral.
Uplines* were also promised a one per cent return on investments made by their downline recruits.
Victims handed over cash to the suspects, which was converted into cryptocurrency and deposited into a mobile application, purportedly for investment in fictitious projects such as an AI-controlled allocation system.
On July 22, the application became inoperable and the coffee shop suddenly closed, leaving victims unable to withdraw their funds. Suspecting they had been cheated, victims reported the case to the Judiciary Police, Kou said.
At the time of the press conference, nine local residents – two men and seven women, all middle-aged or elderly – had filed complaints. The amounts they reported losing range from 52,000 patacas to 1.55 million patacas, with losses among this group amounting to around 3.6 million patacas. The investigation shows that there are at least 40 victims in Macau, and the exact total loss is still under investigation, Kou added.
According to Kou, the duo had been instructed by their upline to open the coffee shop. They had never met their upline in person and only communicated via online platforms. Working capital and supplies were provided by the upline in cryptocurrency.
The duo have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), with each facing charges of fraud and pyramid selling.
Kou said that, as of yesterday, in Hong Kong the police had received 225 complaints about the scam, involving HK$94 million.
According to Article 28-A of Macau’s Law No. 6/96/M:
Anyone who promotes or organises ‘pyramid’ sales faces up to three years’ imprisonment.
For any of the offences referred to in the preceding paragraph:
a) if the crime involves property of high value, the perpetrator faces up to five years’ imprisonment;
b) if the crime involves property of considerable value, the perpetrator faces two to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Anyone who recruits people for “pyramid” sales faces up to 6 months behind bars.
*An individual who directly recruits or enrols someone into a genuine or fraudulent business is defined as an online. – Gemini/MPD
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers search the “Fun Coffee” shop in the over 100-million-pataca invest scam, near Avenida de Horta e Costa recently.
Evidence seized from the coffee shop is displayed at the PJ headquarters in Zape recently. – Photos: PJ
