Six Nabbed By Police In HK$95mn Gold Bar 'scam'

Police said on Wednesday they have arrested six alleged scammers in connection with a HK$95 million fraud scheme involving the sale of gold bars, with one alleged victim claiming to have lost as much as HK$22 million.

According to officers from the commercial crime bureau, 20 people had bought 279 kilogrammes of gold bars from an investment company run by a syndicate.

Each gold bar was worth around HK$300,000.

The victims were then allegedly asked to lease the gold bars to a listed company for a guaranteed annual return of between 6.6 and 7.5 percent.

They received interest payments for a few months, but never got back their money or the gold bars when the investment firm closed down earlier this year, police said.

One of the alleged victims is a Hong Kong resident while the rest are from the mainland, including businessmen, lawyers and students. Police said some of them are educated and experienced investors.

Superintendent Yip Wing-lam appealed to the public to be cautious when they consider purchasing what are billed as low-risk investment products that offer high returns.

“One of the key elements of investment scams is they might use the greed of the people to fall into the scam. It doesn’t mean highly educated people cannot be deceived. They might similarly fall into the same scam like others,” he said.

Yip said police are looking for several others linked to the fraud scheme.