A local woman was arrested on Thursday for cheating at least 110 people out of more than HK$223 million in a convoluted “Ponzi Scheme”.
Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Leng Kam Lon said that the 51-year-old suspect, surnamed Tai, claimed to be a businesswoman.
According to Leng, PJ officers were informed by a local man in June 2021 that he had been persuaded by someone in 2019 to deposit HK$200,000 in a casino-based operation allegedly linked to a VIP room, for which he would receive eight per cent interest each month.
The man said that initially, he received the promised interest. However, he stopped receiving any interest in January 2020. The victim also lost contact with two people-in-charge of the “casino-based operation linked to a VIP room” at the same time, Leng said.
Leng said that during the investigation, PJ officers received further reports from 12 people that they had been defrauded in the same way.
Leng noted that the 13 victims had been cheated out of between HK$200,000 and HK$6.5 million each, bringing the total amount to over HK$17.21 million.
Upon further investigation, PJ officers discovered that the two people-in-charge who claimed that they were operating a VIP room were not, as they had claimed, gaming promoters, but were operating a “Ponzi Scheme” to use victims’ deposits to pay other depositors’ interest, so as to draw more people into the purported high-interest deposit plan.
The PJ estimated that at least 110 victims were attracted by the “high-interest deposit plan”, involving deposits of more than HK$223 million.
According to Leng, PJ officers recently identified Tai as one of the suspects and asked her to report to the PJ headquarters for questioning on Thursday.
Under questioning, Tai admitted that she had been acting as a “lobbyist” to persuade people to deposit money in the “casino-based operation linked to a VIP room”, Leng said.
Leng noted that Tai was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office on Thursday, facing a fraud charge.
The PJ is continuing their investigation to look for the other suspects who are still on the run, as well as the whereabouts of the fraudulently obtained money, The Macau Post Daily reported.
