Fake marriage suspect claims she was lured into scheme by debt

A local 45-year-old woman is being accused, along with two others, of participating in a scheme aiming to grant Macau residency to a mainland man and his daughter, a Public Security Police Force (PSP) spokesperson said during a recent joint press conference of the police forces.

The woman claimed that she was lured into the scheme by a local 40-year-old man who arranged it with the aim of seeing a debt of 80,000 patacas from the woman repaid.

The case arrived at the PSP after suspicions were raised by the Identification Services Bureau (DSI). The bureau found it suspicious that the local woman was requesting residency, claiming a family reunion with a man from the mainland and his daughter (unrelated to the woman) just five months after she had filed for a divorce.

During the investigation, the woman confessed to police that the marriage with the mainland man was fake, and that she never had met him. The procedures had all been arranged by a third person, to whom the woman owed a large amount of money that she could not repay.

The PSP then located and questioned the suspected organizer of the scheme. He confessed to the crime and said it was he who found the mainland man that would pay him the 80,000 patacas in exchange for the documents.

The deal was never finalized and he did not receive any money, as the mainland man was only to pay him after he was granted the documents.

Both suspects’ cases were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office on February 18. The local man is being accused under the provisions of Article 78 Law 16/2021 (the new immigration law) which states that anyone who simulates a marriage to obtain a residence permit or special permit to stay in Macau, whether for themselves or someone else, may receive a penalty of two to eight years’ imprisonment.

According to the PSP, the local woman is being charged for breaching Article 323 of Macau’s Penal Code by making false declarations to the authorities.

The mainland man is still at large and, since he has not entered Macau, the PSP says it has very little information about him or his whereabouts.