The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a male mainlander on Saturday for his alleged involvement in a loan sharking case in which a victim was forced to sign an IOU for HK$45.9 million, PJ spokesman Lai Man Vai said during a regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday.
According to Lai, the victim is a businessman in his fifties from Vanuatu, who was visiting Macau with his friends in November last year.
During his visit to the city, the victim borrowed money from several loan sharks, Lai said. The victim first borrowed HK$3 million and later HK$5 million, gambling away both loans in casinos in Cotai.
Lai noted that the loan sharks withheld the victim’s personal identification documents and forced him to sign an IOU – an informal promissory note – for HK$45.9 million before returning the documents to him.
On a third occasion, the victim borrowed HK$3 million to gamble, and won HK$4.5 million. He gave the total winnings to the loan sharks and then left Macau. According to Lai, in the following months, the victim was assaulted and told to pay HK$39 million.
Lai did not elaborate on where the victim was assaulted after he had left Macau.
In April, the victim reported the case to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) through his lawyer.
On Saturday, a 33-year-old male suspect from the mainland surnamed Zhang – one of the suspected loan sharks – was arrested as he was about to enter Macau via the Barrier Gate checkpoint. Lai underlined that Zhang refused to cooperate.
Lai said that Zhang has been transferred to the Public Prosecution Office for further investigation, adding that multiple suspects were still at large at the time of the press conference.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Lai Man Vai speaks during yesterday’s regular press conference at the PJ headquarters in Zape. Photo: Joel Chu
PLEASE READ THE FULL ARTICLE IN OUR PRINT EDITION.
