The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested four local men and women on Monday for alleged involvement in money laundering and the receiving of stolen goods and money, PJ spokesman Chan Cho Man said during a special press conference yesterday.
According to Chan, the four suspects comprise a 32-year-old woman surnamed Un and three men – her 57-year-old father, 26-year-old brother and 33-year-old boyfriend surnamed Wong.
The quartet were arrested in three residential units, the woman and her boyfriend in a flat in Nape, her father in a flat in Toi San district and her brother in a flat in Taipa.
The case also involves Un’s ex-boyfriend, a Hong Kong man surnamed Ma, who was arrested by the Hong Kong police in 2016, Chan said.
According to Chan, Ma worked as the deputy accounting manager in a shipping company in Hong Kong from 2010 to 2016. During the six years Ma was working there, he accumulatively transferred a total of HK$380 million to his several bank accounts in Hong Kong and Macau.
In March 2016, the shipping company discovered Ma’s embezzlement and reported the case to the police, who then arrested Ma, Chan said.
According to Chan, the shipping company later also discovered that some of the money had been transferred to bank accounts in Macau. As a result, representatives from the HK shipping company came to Macau and reported the case to the Judiciary Police in March last year, Chan said.
According to Chan, the Hong Kong police had also meanwhile reported the case to the Judiciary Police.
After investigating, PJ officers discovered that the female suspect, Ma’s girlfriend at the time, had assisted in the transferring and holding some of the embezzled money, Chan said.
PJ officers confirmed that between 2010 and 2016, Ma accumulatively transferred a total of HK$38 million from his bank accounts into the female suspect’s bank accounts in Hong Kong and Macau, Chan said, adding that the woman however transferred HK$24 million out of the HK$38 million back into Ma’s bank accounts during the period.
PJ officers also found that the female suspect’s bank accounts also accumulatively received HK$25 million in cash remitted by someone, Chan said, adding that the officers assume that the HK$25 million in cash was transferred to the account by Ma.
According to Chan, the female suspect’s current boyfriend, father and brother also held some of the embezzled money in their bank accounts and stored of valuables that were bought using some of the embezzled money.
PJ officers arrested the four suspects in the three residential units on Monday. The officers also seized a large quantity of valuables in two flats – the Nape flat and a flat in Avenida de Horta e Costa, according to Chan.
The valuables seized in the two flats include some 100 handbags, more than 10 purses, numerous of pieces of jewellery and commemorative banknotes, as well as cash, Chan said, adding that the items have a total value of HK$6 million.
PJ officers also sized four cars – worth a total of HK$2.4 million – that were bought using some of the embezzled money, Chan said.
PJ officers also seized the Nape flat and the Taipa flat that were bought by the female suspect using the ill-gotten gains, Chan said, adding that the two flats have a total value of HK$30 million.
PJ officers also froze 10 bank accounts in Macau – five owned by the female suspect, two owned by her father, and three owned by Ma, Chan said, adding that there was HK$2.33 million in the 10 accounts when they were seized.
According to Chan, the value of all the ill-gotten goods and cash confiscated by the Judiciary Police amounts to HK$40 million.
Chan said that the four suspects would be transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for further questioning.
Items and cash seized from the four money-laundering suspects are displayed in a pressroom of the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday. Photo: Iong Tat Choi
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