Police have detained eight men for money laundering. The group used stolen funds to purchase USD56 million (MOP430 million) in cryptocurrency over a six-month period, of which at least MOP180 million was transferred abroad.
According to Judiciary Police (PJ), they detained the eight men last week at a telecommunications store and a hotel in NAPE.
The suspects are aged 33 to 44. Two of them are Macau residents and owners of telecommunications stores. The other six men are unemployed Hong Kong residents.
The eight men were charged with money laundering and criminal syndication, and were referred to the prosecutor’s office for investigation yesterday morning, the PJ revealed.
The two local men are suspected of inviting Hong Kong residents into Macau to buy virtual money to help launder the proceeds of online fraud.
The six Hong Kong residents went to the telecommunications store to buy virtual currency with cash. They then sold it through a virtual currency overseas trading platform. The proceeds were transferred to a number of offshore bank accounts. The Hong Kong residents involved then withdrew the money from local ATMs.
Police said that after the suspects withdrew the money, they went back to the telecommunication store to buy virtual currency and kept on making circular transactions and transfers, “which made it more difficult for the police to trace.”
“Six Hong Kong men confessed that they were instructed by members of the crime syndicate to come to Macau to trade virtual currency for a daily reward of MOP2,000. Two of the Macau suspects refused to cooperate, However, the evidence obtained by the police indicated that all eight suspects were involved,” the police revealed.
During the operation, police seized the allegedly stolen Hong Kong dollars, Macau patacas, and Chinese yuan, amounting to MOP570,000 in cash.
Moreover, 168 bank ATM cards, mobile phones, an expensive watch and two cars suspected of being used in the crime were seized.
With the assistance of the Hong Kong police, PJ also froze a total of USD30,698 (MOP248,000) in cryptocurrency.
