The Macau Judiciary Police (PJ) have arrested two men believed to be connected to a fraud case involving cryptocurrency platform JPEX and suspected to have used accounts at Macau casinos to launder money.
According to information made public on Friday, Hong Kong authorities informed PJ that some members of the JPEX inner circle were transferring illegally obtained funds to Macau, with the two men – said to be in charge of JPEX’s off-exchange trading of virtual currencies – frequently visiting casinos in September and opening accounts with at least one casino.
When the men were arrested in Macau on Thursday, police seized around HK$6.5 million (US$830,000) in casino chips, HK$70,000 (US$8,940) in cash and luxury watches, as well as seizing HK$3 million (US$383,000) held in a casino account.
PJ noted that the two arrested persons refused to co-operate.
“According to the investigation and information from the Hong Kong Police, the two men were responsible for the transfer, concealment and laundering of fraudulent funds through the Macau casino accounts in the JPEX case,” a PJ spokesperson said.
PJ has referred the two men to the Public Prosecutors Office for the offences of “money laundering”, “criminal syndicate” and “computer fraud”.
JPEX, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange, is suspected by Hong Kong police of committing fraud after it was recently revealed that the exchange does not hold a formal trading licence.
Authorities acted following complained from more than 2,400 people who claim to have lost a combined HK$1.5 billion (US$192 million). Hong Kong police have already arrested 16 people linked to the case.
