Crime | Another gambling loan goes south

A happy experience in Macau of a lucky 30-year-old tourist from mainland China soon turned into a nightmare. A Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson revealed yesterday that a 48-year-old male suspect from the mainland in this case was finally caught last Friday while trying to exit the region at the Border Gate checkpoint. The man has been presented to the Public Prosecutions Office for breach of trust, after tricking a victim into transferring his casino earnings into his VIP account at a local casino.

In October, the victim borrowed HKD500,000 from the suspect to gamble. The victim’s luck allowed him to transform the initial HKD500,000 into HKD4 million. However, when trying to return the borrowed money, the suspect suggested that the victim deposit the chips into his VIP account at the casino in order to be more easily transformed into cash. The victim accepted, but the suspect only handed him HKD1 million instead of the HKD3.5 million, telling him that he needed to wait a couple of days before he could withdraw the full sum.

On October 26, the victim sought to request the remaining sum, however the suspect was now out of reach. The victim decided to file a complaint with the PJ, feeling that he had been scammed.

Police investigations were able to identify the suspect, but were only able to find and intercept him on Jan. 25, 2019.

Questioned by the PJ, he denied committing the crime, but police say that they have enough evidence to prove his guilt.

The victim retained HKD1 million of the original HKD3.5 million.

In a separate event occurring last Thursday evening, two alleged victims (aged 36 and 37 years old) claimed to have been scammed by two other men (aged 49 and 46) who offered them a deal “too good to be true.”

According to the report of the victims, the suspects offered to exchange a total of HKD400,000 in gaming chips for the HKD200,000 in cash that the victims had, and they did not hesitate.

A few minutes later, the victims fulfilled their part of the deal, handing the sum in cash to the suspects, who requested them to wait “for a while” while they were retrieving the chips.

Around 11:30  p.m. the victims decided to call the suspects to ask them to meet to get the chips. The chosen meeting point was the lobby of the hotel.

Instead of the two suspects, the victims met with only one of them, who informed the victims that the other had taken off with the money.
The victims then called the PJ and the first suspect was detained on site.

During questioning, the first suspect told the police where they could find the second suspect, who was also caught by the authorities.

Although both suspects were detained, there is no further information as to the whereabouts of the victim’s money.

Real estate scam victims and amount updates

AT A press conference held yesterday, the PJ spokesperson updated the most recent figures involving the case of the real estate scam involving businesswoman Isabel Chiang. According to the PJ, the number of victims has now risen to 56, of which 54 are locals, with one from Hong Kong and another from the mainland. After the new calculations, the sum lost by the investors surpasses HKD255 million.