A male mainlander was arrested over his alleged involvement in a Chinese chess (“xiangqi”) scam, which was set up to cheat the victim out of 1.1 million yuan (HK$1.38 million), Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai said during a regular press conference in Zape yesterday .
According to Choi, the suspect is a 46-year-old surnamed Li, while the victim is a man from the mainland in his forties, whose surname was not revealed. Choi said that both work as construction recruitment agents.
Choi said that last month, the victim met Li and another male suspect, who at the time of the press conference had not yet been arrested, at his workplace in Guangzhou. The victim and the male suspect on the run regularly played Chinese chess - one of the nation’s most popular board games, against each other. During their games, they placed bets of 200 or 300 yuan on every game they played in which the victim won most of them.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Choi Ian Fai poses during yesterday’s regular press conference in a police pressroom in Zape. Photo: Joel Chu
