Pair arrested for TNR quota fraud

A man and a woman have been detained for alleged document forgery with the aim of securing entry permits for non-resident workers (TNRs), the Judiciary Police (PJ) announced at a special press conference yesterday.

The PJ revealed that the two are accused of falsifying personal details, which were used to apply for TNR permits. In addition, they are also believed to have sold TNR quotas for profit.

The detained suspects are named Lam, 50 years of age, and Wei, 48. There are five other suspects in the case who were registered as employees in Lam’s open business. The five suspects admitted to giving Lam their personal details in order to register for Social Security benefits without having worked in the company.

However, these five denied that they were aware of the TNR fraud.

During investigations into an online scam in September last year, the PJ found a suspect holding a TNR ID card – colloquially known as the Blue Card – without having employment in Macau.

The suspect confessed to the police that it was purchased on the mainland for 100,000 Chinese yuan.

Further investigations revealed that TNRs were hired for two businesses, both of which are owned by the same legal entity. The PJ believed that five people were fraudulently registered as employees of the businesses, for whom 11 TNR quotas have been issued.

On February 15, the PJ searched the businesses and discovered that seven out of the 11 did not work at the establishments.

Lam admitted to the Social Security applications but denied the fraud involving TNR quotas. Meanwhile, Wei confessed that she operated the TNR quota racket herself and so far has made a profit of 350,000 Chinese yuan.

The PJ added that some TNRs connected with the case have not yet been apprehended.