Illegal currency exchange operators assault and rob competitor

An illegal currency exchange operator has allegedly been beaten and robbed of HKD90,000 by four competitors at a local hotel room, the Judiciary Police (PJ) has announced.

Only two of the four alleged aggressors were caught, the police disclosed, adding that the two at large were believed to have left Macau. The two arrested are surnamed Tu, 34, and Dai, 40. Both the alleged aggressors and the victim are from mainland China.

According to the police, in the evening of Aug. 4, they were notified by a Cotai hotel of an alleged robbery. Inspectors managed to contact the male victim, in his 30’s. The victim told inspectors he was approached by a seeker of currency exchange services the same evening. They then made arrangements to meet at the lobby of the Cotai hotel. Afterwards, the service seeker requested to relocate to a room on the seventh floor of the hotel to facilitate the transaction.

Once in the room, three other men emerged from the washroom and the four men pushed him onto the bed. During the fight, the victim believed that he was attacked with something that resembled a drinking glass. He yelled to the attackers and begged for his own life. The four men left the room after taking his Hong Kong dollars. With his injuries, he approached the hotel staff for help.

Preliminary investigations enabled the police to identify four people. Two suspects were arrested during the early hours the next day at two other casinos in Cotai. The police found HKD230,000 in both cash and casino chips on the two apprehended suspects, of which at least HKD140,000 was in cash. The two people denied the allegations. The mainland police were notified of the case as part of police efforts to find the remaining two people.

In another case, a woman fell victim to an impersonation scam and lost HKD125,000. She received a call from a self-claimed officer at the imaginary Beijing Communications Administration, who accused her of having several mainland phone numbers for money laundering and human trafficking purposes. Denying the claim, she was diverted to the self-claimed Beijing Police, who showed her an arrest warrant and requested her immediate cooperation. Believing it to be true, she transferred the money to a designated account. Because she was not contacted again, she reported the case to the local police upon realizing that she might have been scammed.