Man arrested for alleged sham marriage with god-sister for Macau ID

A now-local middle-aged man has been detained by the Public Security Police Force (PSP) on allegations of a sham marriage with his god-sister to obtain Macau residency.

The case was announced yesterday by the police in a regular press conference.

According to the police, there are four suspects. The first suspect is surnamed Zhong, a 50-year-old male, who was a mainland resident but later obtained Macau residency.

The second suspect is surnamed Tan, a 45-year-old female, who also obtained Macau residency through the progress of this case. She is the first wife of Zhong.

Surnamed Lei, the 40-year-old third suspect is the godsister of Zhong and also his alleged sham wife. Her mother, surnamed Leong and aged 65 years, is Zhong’s godmother and has been identified as the fourth suspect. Both Lei and Leong are Macau residents.

Police disclosed that Zhong and Tan married in 1999. The next year, they bore their first daughter and the second daughter four years later. In January 2008, the couple filed for  divorce.

About four months after the divorce, Zhong married Lei in mainland China. In 2012, Zhong and his elder daughter garnered provisional or non-permanent Macau residency.

It was revealed that Zhong and Tan bore a son in 2010. In the same year, Lei bore a son as well, but the biological father was not Zhong.

In 2015, Zhong and Lei filed for a divorce in mainland China.

After the termination of his latest marriage, Zhong remarried Tan in 2017 in mainland China. Five years later, in 2022, Tan and the two remaining children obtained provisional Macau residency.

Seeing this timeline, the police found the occurrences suspicious, mainly because Zhong swiftly married a new woman only four months after his first divorce, in addition to divorcing his second wife in just three years after obtaining provisional Macau residency. Moreover, the police found the remarriage also a source of suspicion.

During their investigations, the police were told that Leong, being the godmother of Zhong, arranged the alleged sham marriage. The police have identified her as the intermediary of the alleged sham marriage.

Upon her success in arranging the marriage, Leong was given MOP20,000 as remuneration.

Lei also confessed to the police that she married Zhong following her mother’s instructions.

In another case, the Judiciary Police (PJ) was told that a man had lost 50 times the price of an undelivered cellphone in the attempts of retrieving the cost of the cellphone through underground means.

According to the PJ, the victim, who is a local man, tried to buy a cellphone on an online platform for the price of MOP1,500 in 2020. After settling the bill, the phone was not delivered nor was the money returned. Due to the situation, he went to other online sources for help.

He was then contacted by somebody who claimed to be able to retrieve the paid sum. However, the victim was informed he should pay for the “service.” Between August and October in the same year, the victim made six transfers, totaling nearly 80,000 Chinese yuan, to four mainland bank accounts.

As a result, he lost both the phone price and the “service fee” for the retrieval.

On Jan. 29, 2023, the police intercepted Zhang, the 28-year-old mainland-resident holder of the four accounts, at the Hengqin Border Checkpoint. He confessed that he had allowed the use of his accounts to collect funds of an undisclosed nature and source. He was promised 300 yuan for each receipt, adding up to 1,200 yuan for all four.

Zhang denied that he was aware of the illegality of the nature of the fund.