The Judiciary Police (PJ) arrested a Canadian Chinese man on Friday for allegedly attempting to deceive a local bank into transferring 249 million euros (equivalent to over 2.28 billion patacas) from an account of a local gaming operator to his account in Hong Kong earlier last week – by showing a forged remittance slip and a letter of authorisation purportedly issued by the gaming operator, according to PJ spokesman Leng Kam Lon.
The suspect left the bank branch as he failed in his attempt to deceive the bank after the staff discovered that the signature on the remittance slip that the suspect showed was not the same as the signature sample the bank has on file, according to Leng.
Leng announced the mega-fraud case during a special press conference on Saturday.
Leng did not say whether the suspect is a visitor or a local resident.
Leng identified the suspect as a 61-year-old retiree surnamed Leao, an ethnic Chinese holding Canadian citizenship.
Leng did not mention the name of the gaming operator during Saturday’s press conference, neither did he reveal the name of the bank.
Last Monday, Leao went to the bank branch in the city centre where he told a staff member that he had been authorised by the gaming operator to transfer 249 million euros from an account of the company to a Hong Kong account – the suspect’s account.
Leao showed a remittance slip about the transfer and a letter of authorisation purportedly issued by the company, Leng said, adding that the staff rejected Leao’s transfer request after seeing that the signature on the remittance slip was not the same as the signature sample in the bank’s records.
After the bank rejected his transfer request, Leao immediately left the bank with the remittance slip and the authorisation letter, Leng said.
According to Leng, the bank contacted the gaming operator to enquire about the case. The company told the bank that it had not told any of its staff to conduct the purported remittance.
The bank suspected that the man – Leao – tried to cheat both the bank and the gaming operator, Leng said. The bank reported the case to the Judiciary Police on Friday.
PJ officers identified Leao as the suspect and intercepted him on Friday evening when he was about to leave Macau via a border checkpoint. Leng did not say through which checkpoint the suspect intended to leave Macau.
According to Leng, PJ officers found the forged remittance slip on Leao who, however, denied that he had attempted to cheat the bank.
PJ officers believe that Leao committed the attempted fraud and that there are other suspects involved in the case, Leng said.
Leng said that Leao will be transferred to the Public Prosecution Office (MP) for possible arraignments on various charges such as using a forged documents and aggravated fraud.
Photo – TDM news
