Wallis Wang
Eighteen suspects have been arrested in a crackdown on syndicates suspected of using fake documents to take out HK$193 million government-guaranteed bank loans that were launched to support businesses hit by Covid.
The suspects – 12 men and six women – were arrested for conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, police said yesterday.
Superintendent Yip Wing-lam of police’s fraud division said some companies exaggerated their number of employees and their salaries when applying for loans.
In one case, a company with only two staff that had a monthly revenue of HK$10,000 claimed it had to pay HK$6 million in wages annually – indicating each worker earned as much as HK$250,000 per month.
”A cha chaan teng also claimed that each of its staff could earn HK$80,000 to HK$90,000 per month,” Yip said. “The exaggerated salaries alone might not have alerted us, but some of the companies submitted fake documents and evidence, which made us suspicious and start to investigate.”
Some companies used the personal information of former employees who left Hong Kong to open new MPF accounts, in order to exaggerate the number of employees and get more loans.
Senior inspector Mak Wai-kwong of the Commercial Crime Bureau’s fraud division said the syndicates used shell…
