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A 35-year-old Singaporean man who was involved in a shares investment fraud was today (January 14) jailed for two years and eight months.
The District Court heard that a securities investment fraud syndicate was believed to have involved in the fraudulent trading of shares and duping over 100 investors from 32 countries and regions to transfer about US$4.6million to the defendant's bank accounts in Hong Kong.
Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) conducted investigations after receiving a report made by a victim in Croatia in April 2008.
It was revealed that the victims were lured by people claiming to be investment brokers into investing in some high yield securities. They were told to remit their money into bank accounts maintained by the defendant in Hong Kong.
The victims were then persuaded to switch to invest in different securities after their initial investment had yielded some purported profits. However, when the victims refused and tried to withdraw their investment and the purported profits, they were unable to do so.
On April 24, 2008, CCB officers arrested the Singaporean man who admitted that he was rewarded for opening the bank accounts for two expatriates. The man was subsequently charged with two counts of dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offence. He was convicted and sentence was handed down today.
Police Report No. 11
Ends/Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Issued at HKT 23:24
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