Crime | Man caught in scam involving Covid-19 gov’t support to SMEs

A 41-year-old male resident of Macau is being accused of a series of crimes by his business partner, the Judiciary Police (PJ) reported yesterday during the regular joint press conference of the police forces.
According to the PJ, the investigation started after the suspect’s partner made a complaint directly to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), which the MP redirected to PJ for investigation.
The suspect and the victim have a joint partnership in a restaurant and bar business located at the Areia Preta District.
The victim claims that between September 2020 and March 2021, while he was absent from Macau, the suspect took around 200,000 patacas from the business account and abused his position to make an application in the company’s name to the Economic Bureau (DSE) for a Covid-19 government support measure which he then used for an unlawful purpose.
According to the victim, after he found that around 200,000 patacas were missing from the company account, he also discovered that later in April, 399,000 patacas had been transferred into and then immediately out of the same account.
He said that he confronted the suspect who allegedly replied that it was his money and not company money.
A deeper search into the company documents revealed that the money was a loan from the DSE obtained as part of the pandemic relief measures to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that would need to be repaid. In addition, use of the loan was strictly confined to the payment of staff salaries and the acquisition of goods and equipment related to Covid-19 pandemic prevention and control measures.
On September 2, the PJ requested that the suspect respond to the case, but he refused to respond to any questions from the investigators.
However, the PJ says that it has enough evidence of the suspect’s wrongdoing and has forwarded the case back to MP for to accuse the suspect of fraud and abuse of trust.