The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested six local men and women on Friday for the alleged sale of a residential unit for HK$12 million that was not owned by any of them.
The sextet allegedly used forged documents.
PJ spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei announced the case during a special press conference on Saturday.
According to Lei, the six suspects, comprising five men and a woman, are aged between 24 and 69.
In January, one of the male suspects, surnamed Chan, asked the female suspect, surnamed Choi who worked in a lawyers’ office at that time, to apply for an authenticated copy of the title deed of a residential unit in Taipa, Lei said. Choi left the lawyers’ office in February.
According to Lei, Chan had been arrested in December last year for another alleged property fraud case. After he was released on his own recognisance, the police kept investigating him.
According to Lei, the suspects then made a fake ID card purporting to be the one of the genuine owner of the residential unit, using the personal information from the authenticated copy of the title deed.
According to Lei, Chan and two of the male suspects – surnamed Hang and Fong – arranged for a mainland woman to come to Macau and pretend to be the genuine owner of the Taipa residential unit, with the fake ID card. Under the suspects’ arrangement, the mainland woman – in a lawyers’ office – succeeded in authorising one of the suspects, surnamed Tam, to sell the unit on the property market, for a price HK$4 million lower than the average market price.
According to Lei, the mainland woman is not among the six arrested suspects.
In the middle of this month, a buyer agreed to purchase the flat for HK$12 million. The buyer and the suspects finalised the property transaction in a lawyers’ office on Friday morning, Lei said.
According to Lei, after Hang and Tam received three cashier’s orders from the buyer of the flat, they went to a bank to cash in the money. In the afternoon, they got HK$11.26 million and left the bank.
Lei said that PJ officers arrested Hang and Tam when they were getting into a taxi and seized the cash from the duo. Later on Friday, PJ officers also arrested the other suspects in several flats across the city. The ongoing investigations into Chan’s alleged property fraud case from last year had led the police to the case that ended with the six suspects’ arrests on Friday.
The six suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) on Saturday for further questioning. The office said in a statement yesterday that four of the six suspects have been remanded in custody, while the other two have been ordered to regularly report to the police and been barred from leaving Macau.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers sort cash seized in the HK$12 million property fraud case, in a pressroom at the PJ headquarters on Saturday, with other evidence on display. Photo: Maria Cheang Ut Meng
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