Three men were arrested last Saturday for cheating a Hong Kong man out of HK$3 million who wanted to transfer the money from his casino VIP account to Hong Kong but never received the money, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokeswoman Lei Hon Nei said in a regular press conference on Wednesday.
The three suspects are local males – a jobless 43-year-old surnamed Ho, a jobless 39-year-old surnamed Si and a 36-year-old surnamed Leong who told the police that he works as a takeaway delivery man.
According to Lei, the victim reported to the police last Friday that he wanted to transfer HK$3 million from his casino VIP account to Hong Kong. A friend of his introduced him to Ho and Leong who met the victim in a coffee shop last Friday. Ho claimed that he could help to transfer the money and the victim’s friend in Hong Kong would be able to withdraw the money from a currency exchange shop in Hong Kong on behalf of the victim. The victim handed over HK$3 million in cash to Ho, but the victim’s friend in Hong Kong was unable to get the money from the currency exchange shop. The victim suspected that he had been deceived and reported the case to the police.
According to Lei, PJ officers discovered that after Ho received the cash on that day, he handed over HK$1.994 million to Leong who deposited HK$1.992 million into Si’s casino VIP account. Ho got HK$6,000 and Leong got HK$2,000 as their “commission”. Afterwards, Si transferred the money into another account of the same VIP room. PJ officers searched Ho’s flat in Areia Preta last Saturday where they seized HK$1 million in cash.
Ho claimed that he and Leong went to the coffee shop to get the money from the victim according to the instruction of two other people. PJ officers recovered the remaining stolen money of HK$1.992 million from the VIP account and told Leong and Si to go to a police station to assist in the investigation, which both did.
PJ officers are continuing their investigation into the whereabouts of other possible suspects involved in the case.
The trio have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), facing a fraud charge involving a considerable amount, officially defined as exceeding 150,000 patacas, according to Lei.
