A local couple has been detained on the charge of carrying out a scam involving HKD10 million in casino chips, the Judiciary Police (PJ) revealed yesterday during a special press conference to discuss the case.
The alleged actions are those of a 33-year-old man, a member of the Macau Security Force (FSM) since 2006, and his wife, a 25-year-old woman, also a local resident.
The case was discovered on October 2 when two local men filed a complaint accusing the couple of fraud.
The complainants told the PJ they had given the suspects a total of HKD10 million in gaming chips to be converted into cash.
They also said that this was a service previously offered by the same couple, and that they had used the couple’s services on previous occasions without any problem.
They also mentioned having given the couple a total of HKD20 million to be withdrawn at the casino cages between August and September. The couple would provide the service, completing the transactions within a week and requesting compensation equivalent to 6% of the value of the chips.
On September 7, the complainants gave the couple more gaming chips. The couple did not immediately perform the transaction as they usually did, and as of September 10 there was no sign of the money.
When questioned by the clients, the first suspect replied that he did not have the full sum of money, as the wife had lost the amount at the gaming tables. On that occasion, the man only managed to reimburse the victims HKD1,080,000.
Since the couple never provided the remaining owed cash, the complainants decided to press charges against them, claiming to have been tricked and involved in a fraud.
As the PJ spokesperson explained, the two victims are in reality intermediaries for actual gamblers from the mainland who, due to the pandemic, have not been able to exchange their gaming chips as usual, via bank transfers using the casinos’ VIP rooms.
He also added that the two men would eventually charge 7% of the value of the chips to the original chip owners in the mainland, earning the 1% difference.
On October 5, the second suspect was caught by the police while attempting to exit Macau via the Border Gate border post. The husband was detained at home the following day.
The PJ said that when taken into questioning, both refused to cooperate with the police, and the woman, at the time she was detained, only said that she had no knowledge or means of performing the exchange of chips for cash.
Following its investigation, although the suspects have not cooperated or admitted to the crime, the PJ has stated that it has found sufficient evidence that the couple was colluding in all the aforementioned activities.
They were presented to the Public Prosecutions Office yesterday morning, to be charged under Article 211 of the Macau Penal Code with aggravated fraud, facing a potential penalty of 2 to 10 years’ imprisonment.
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