China News Service, May 26. According to Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, the Hong Kong police and the Macau police jointly smashed a cross-border money laundering group, involving more than 2.2 billion yuan (HKD, the same below) in criminal proceeds.
The police of the two places jointly carried out the "Extension" operation the day before yesterday (24th), arresting a total of 22 suspects (17 in Hong Kong and 5 in Macau) suspected of "money laundering" in the two places. Among them, there were at least 32 fraud cases involving Hong Kong. The victims lost a total of $84 million, involving more than 181 traditional and virtual bank accounts.
The criminal group mainly used money to solicit puppets to open bank accounts in Hong Kong, and the accounts were then operated by key members in Macau through online banking services.
Twenty-two people were arrested in Hong Kong and Macau. Among them, 11 men and 6 women (aged 25 to 60) were arrested in Kowloon and the New Territories on suspicion of conspiracy to commit money laundering, including the backbone of the syndicate and the puppet account holders, who respectively reported as housewives, Beauticians, clerks and construction workers, etc., and 300,000 yuan in cash and 52 ATM cards were seized. The remaining 5 people (23 to 37 years old) were arrested in Macau, including 2 Hong Kong citizens, 2 Macau citizens and 1 Mainland China The persons, who respectively reported being unemployed and a salesperson, were suspected of using the bank cards involved to withdraw money and handle the proceeds of crime in Macau.
The police stated that the money laundering syndicate involved in the case was controlled by people from Hong Kong and Macau, lured relatives and friends with money, and opened a large number of bank accounts in Hong Kong as puppet accounts. The puppet account handles more than 2.2 billion yuan in criminal proceeds from fake official scams, investment scams and online shopping scams, some of which are involved in at least 32 fraud cases in Hong Kong.
The criminals transferred the funds to Macau, and the key members of the group used the ATMs in Macau to withdraw a large amount of cash through puppet accounts to increase the difficulty of tracing.
The police said that the money laundering group recruited relatives and friends, including mothers, partners, classmates, cousins and colleagues, to open traditional or virtual bank accounts, open online banking services, and obtain account numbers with remuneration ranging from 10,000 to 60,000 yuan. , After logging in the account number and password, claiming that these accounts are used for investment and savings, etc., in fact, criminals use them to receive criminal proceeds and launder money.
The investigation found that among the 181 puppet accounts, the criminal proceeds of at least 32 fraud cases in Hong Kong and Macau were involved, including 15 cases of impersonating officials, 6 cases of investment fraud, 5 cases of online romance fraud and 1 case of email fraud, etc. The known victims were 5 males and 21 females (aged 25 to 67), who lost between $20,000 and $14 million respectively, with a total loss of more than $84 million.
One of the victims was defrauded of 14 million yuan, and a local biotechnology company was hacked into its email system earlier. The criminals pretended to be a business partner of the company and used similar emails to defraud the company, causing the company to pay more than 1.1 million yuan. Funds are transferred to the bank account number on the fake email.
The police said that the case is still under investigation, and the whereabouts of other stolen funds will also be traced, and more arrests cannot be ruled out.