A local couple in their fifties is accused of defrauding a mainland man of the sum of HKD2.2 million over an alleged currency exchange deal, the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced yesterday during the regular police forces jointed press conference.
According to a PJ spokesperson, the two suspects are married and work as croupiers at an undisclosed casino.
The case emerged after a complaint was filed by the victim with the PJ on January 29. The man told the PJ he had used the services of the couple to convert HKD2.2 million he had withdrawn from a local bank into RMB, so that he could spend the money on the mainland.
As on previous occasions, he found a contact on WeChat to help him conduct the currency exchange.
The contact told him to take the cash to a location near the Border Gate area and to seek a person holding a HKD20 banknote with a specified serial number. The directions stated he should hand the HKD to this person and then head to the mainland, where another individual would hand him the RMB1.8 million agreed for the exchange.
The victim said that he trusted the system because he had used it on other occasions for large amounts (over HKD1 million) and everything had been performed as agreed.
This time, at the arranged location, he found a man with the HKD20 banknote, but the victim noticed that the serial number was not the correct one.
Suspecting that something might be amiss, the victim again consulted his contact. The contact said that the man he had seen holding the banknote was covering for another man, and that it was safe to give the cash to the substitute, which advice the victim followed.
However, after crossing the border into Zhuhai, the victim realized there was nobody at the delivery point with the cash in RMB, so he decided to cross back to Macau to seek help from the PJ.
After the identification of the suspects, the PJ managed to intercept and detain them at the border gate the following day (January 30).
In the couple’s possession was a total of HKD812,000 in cash, while a search conducted at their home address led to the discovery of another HKD1,254,000.
When questioned, the two suspects denied ever having had contact with the victim and refused to collaborate with the PJ in explaining the origin of the cash that they had found.
During the investigation, the PJ said it had collected enough evidence of the involvement of the two suspects as well as discovering proof through surveillance cameras footage that it was the husband the person that met the victim and received the cash in HKD.
The victim also recognized the suspect and the HKD20 banknote with the number used serving as the password to identify the person to whom he should hand the cash, which had also been found among the wife’s possessions.
The case has been referred to the Public Prosecutions Office for further investigation. The couple was charged with fraud on February 2.
