Crime | PSP unveils complex ‘fake marriage’ scheme used to obtain Macau IDs

A diagram of the complex connections in the marriage scam distributed to journalists at yesterday’s press conference

During yesterday’s joint press conference held at the Judiciary Police headquarters, the Public Security Police Force (PSP) unveiled a complex scheme involving two families in which the suspects have made use of false marriages and a lawful investment residency permit in order to unlawfully obtain the Macau Resident Card (BIR) granted to five other people.

The case goes back to 2002 when a man from the mainland, who had been granted a BIR through real estate investments, divorced his wife and then married his ex-wife’s younger sister, requesting that his new partner be granted a local residency permit, as well as her daughter from a previous relationship.

Concurrently, another sister of the first woman, who was married in the mainland, divorced from her husband and married her own nephew – the son from the first marriage. She was also granted residency through investment in Macau.

With this complex scheme of marriage and divorce, the police said that the suspects, four in total, managed to obtain a total of 10 Macau residency cards, when in normal and legal circumstances the two families would only by able to attain a total of five through the investment scheme and their formal family relations.

The Identification Services Bureau (DSI) first reported the case to the PSP for investigation after it became aware that the suspects, after obtaining their Macau residency, had divorced from their partners and re-married their original partners in the mainland.

The four suspects, three women and one man ranging between 39 and 67 years of age are now being accused of document forgery and false declarations.

MAN ACCUSED OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT

A non-resident worker in his 20s has been accused of sexually harassing a local woman, the PSP spokesperson informed yesterday.

According to the victim, the incident occurred at 3:20 a.m. on May 21 when the woman was walking between Rua de Bragança and Rua do Minho in Taipa. In the report to the PSP, the woman said she was touched on the chest by a Southeast Asian man who ran away right after the attack.

After the review of surveillance camera footage from that area, the PSP managed to identify a Filipino national on May 24.

Cross-referencing the information with a similar case that occurred in 2016, the police realized that the suspect had committed a prior attack.

A home search also revealed that the man had at his residence items of clothing that matched the ones described by the victims.

He admitted the crimes and his case has been forwarded for further investigation by the Public Prosecutions Office (MP).

FIGHT BETWEEN COUPLE REVEALS ILLEGALITIES

A complaint from a woman about a fight with her boyfriend that occurred outside StarWorld casino in NAPE has triggered an investigation by the PSP that revealed crimes committed by both persons.

The case occurred on May 23 at around 10 p.m. when a tourist couple from the mainland started a dispute outside the casino over money.

At that time and according to the reports on site, the two hit each other several times and eventually the man wounded the woman.

After the case was reported to the police, the man was intercepted and admitted to having fought the woman.

Further investigation revealed that the woman had overstayed her visa.
The PSP also found that the couple was renting a room in an illegal hostel located at Rua de Sintra, for which they were paying a daily rental fee of MOP300. While the man was sent to the MP under charges of bodily harm, the woman was charged with the offense of overstaying.

According to the PSP spokesperson statement, no charges were made against the owner of the illegal hostel where they were living.

Local man scams friend over ‘second-hand watch sale company’

A 52-year-old local man is being accused of scamming another man, also a Macau resident, over the creation of a business dedicated to the sale of second-hand watches from luxury brands, the Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesperson informed.

According to the report, back in 2012 the suspect had asked for the victim’s participation in a business that aimed to resell luxury watches acquired at local pawn shops, after their refurbishment.

In the report from the victim, the suspect, a man believed to be very knowledgeable in the resale business, would acquire the luxury brand watches left in pawn shops and send them to a repair specialist company in Hong Kong, before then reselling them through the company that he was creating.

In 2018, the victim decided to join the business and on 17 occasions between June and August that year he transferred money to a bank account owned by the suspect’s wife. These transactions amounted to a combined a sum of HKD1.15 million, money that should have served to acquire the watches and repair them for resale.

Earlier this year, the victim found it strange to have not received any more information or news from the suspect about the business, nor had he received any sum from the sales. He decided to investigate the situation on his own. The victim went to Hong Kong, to the address of the company that should have been repairing the watches, and there he confirmed that his partner had never delivered any watches to be repaired.

Feeling he had been deceived by the suspect, the victim filed a complaint to the PJ, detailing the scam.

On May 24, when the suspect was entering Macau via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, he was detained and delivered to the PJ.

According to the PJ spokesperson, the suspect refused to cooperate with the authorities.

He was sent to the Public Prosecutions Office under the accusation of scamming, but the PJ said that the case is not yet closed as they are still searching for the suspect’s wife. RM