The Judiciary Police (PJ) on Wednesday nabbed two local women working for a jewellery shop for illegal currency exchange activities involving over HK$70 million, PJ spokesman Ho Wai Lok said during a special press conference yesterday.
Ho identified the duo, who are related, working at the shop as a 58-year-old who identified herself as a businesswoman and a 42-year-old who said that she was a saleswoman, both surnamed Sam.
According to Ho, on Wednesday, during a routine inspection of facilities next to a casino in Nape, PJ officers noticed 42-year-old Sam displaying a payment QR code to a gambler in the jewellery shop. After the gambler completed a mobile transfer, she immediately took HK$ banknotes from a drawer and handed them to the gambler, Ho said, pointing out that the gambler then exchanged the cash for casino chips to gamble.
Judicial Police officers intercepted and questioned both, and PJ officers discovered that in the transaction, 42-year-old Sam received 2,020 yuan and exchanged the amount for HK$2,000 at an exchange rate of 0.99 for the gambler, Ho said.
PJ officers seized suspected illicit cash totalling HK$2.827 million and 60,000 yuan from the jewellery shop and also confiscated an account ledger and a mobile phone specifically used for currency exchange transactions, Ho said, adding that a follow-up investigation showed that the shop had opened for business in 2014.
Ho also said that since the effective date of the “Law on Combating Illegal Gambling Offences “ on October 29, 2024, the transactions at the shop had reached at least HK$70 million.
The duo have been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), each facing charges of involvement in illegal currency exchange activities.
Judiciary Police (PJ) officers escort the two hooded suspects from the PJ headquarters in Zape to a van yesterday. – Photo: Armindo Neves
