The Judiciary Police (PJ) have arrested four suspects for fraud, money laundering and document forgery in two casinos, PJ spokesman Cheong Un Hong said during a special press conference yesterday.
The quartet were arrested in the casinos in Cotai on Monday.
Cheong identified the four suspects as three Hongkongers and one local resident; the trio from Hong Kong are aged between 63 and 67, surnamed Lee, Wong and Or who told the police that they are business people. The local resident is a 36-year-old male surnamed Wong, who told the police that he’s a driver.
According to Vong Chi Hou, head of the Judiciary Police’s gaming-related Crimes Division, they received a report on Monday from a gaming concessionaire that Lee had fraudulently obtained credit facilities.
Vong said that on October 15 Lee submitted a forged electronic bank statement from a Hong Kong bank to a gaming concessionaire, falsely claiming a bank account balance of HK$48 million. Lee successfully deceived the gaming operator into approving a HK$10 million gambling credit, Vong said.
According to Vong, subsequently, on October 18, 23 and 27, Lee, along with Wong and Or, obtained non-negotiable gaming chips – also known as “mud chips” or “lai ma” in Cantonese – in several batches. After gambling for a period, they removed the chips from the casino premises, Vong said.
On Monday evening, Vong said, when the company discovered his activities and demanded the return of the chips, Lee was only able to repay HK$1,585,000. The remaining HK$8,415,000 could not be accounted for, after which the company reported the case to the Judiciary Police, Vong said.
According to Vong, a follow-up investigation revealed that since early October, the gang had attempted to obtain loans from multiple gaming concessionaires. Apart from the gaming operator that had filed the report, they successfully defrauded another gaming operator of HK$9,000,000 in credit, while two other operators did not approve their applications, Vong said.
On Monday evening, Vong said, PJ officers arrested the gang of four at a casino in Cotai and seized HK$300,000 from Wong. The four suspects told the police that the fraudulently obtained non-negotiable gaming chips had been taken away by other accomplices who were still at large during the press conference yesterday afternoon.
The quartet were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday facing charges of fraud, money laundering and document forgery.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the four hooded casino fraud suspects to a PJ van outside the PJ headquarters in Zape yesterday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
