Crime | Local resident loses HKD17 million following investment in VIP room

A local resident has reported a loss of about HKD17 million in an investment scheme involving a VIP gambling room of a local casino, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson said yesterday during a press conference.

The woman, about 40 years old, was apparently lured into the business by a friend, a local man, 49, who was part of the room’s operations.

The case goes back to April 2015, when the suspect told the woman that she could invest with a high interest return (1.5 percent per month) in the VIP room that he was operating. The victim accepted the deal and invested a total of HKD20 million in the scheme.

According to her testimony, the scheme ran as expected for about one year but after that she stopped receiving interest and chased the friend for the returns, who then claimed to have had problems with the room’s operations. He said he could not return the money as he had used it for the operations of the room.

In total, the victim was said to have only been able to retrieve around HKD3 million, reporting a loss of around HKD17 million. Claiming breach of trust, the woman then presented a complaint to the PJ.

On July 19, the PJ finally managed to locate the suspect with the help of the immigration authorities, when he was preparing to enter Macau at the airport checkpoint.

The man confessed to the crime, saying that the money was in fact used for the operation of the room and that he had no means to return it to the owner.

He was presented to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) for breach of trust.

In a separate case involving the same type of crime, a manager from a seafood restaurant located in central Macau has also been accused of breach of trust by making use of his privileged position to establish a scheme in which he would replace the cash collected by employees from patrons in the cashier, with coupons from the company, usually offered to high-roller gamblers.

The case dates back to May 11, when the restaurant administration filed a complaint against the manager. According to the report, the manager, under close scrutiny by the administration, was seen collecting the cash from the settled bills of some clients from the cashier, replacing it with coupons, on May 7. According to an internal investigation by the company, he had also instructed the other employees from the restaurant that every time any patrons settled bills in cash, they should keep the cash and hand it to him, and then he would replace it with the coupons.

In total, the company claims to have lost at least MOP46,646. After the acknowledgement of the case, the manager was fired and fled to an unknown location.

On July 20, the suspect (47) and an employee of the restaurant since 2013, were caught while trying to enter Macau by the border gate checkpoint and were delivered to the PJ.

The suspect refused to cooperate with the police and was delivered to the MP under the charge of breach of trust.