Macau police arrest 17 people suspected of China UnionPay scam to get cash out of mainland
Pawnshops raided, underground banks targeted as stock market rout fuels fears of capital flight
Macau police have arrested 17 people in a raid on five pawnshops thought to be using China UnionPay point-of-sale terminals to illegally get cash out of the mainland.
The raid comes amid efforts by the mainland to curb illegal money flows and clamp down on underground banks as the falling stock market and uncertainty in the global economy fuel concerns over capital flight.
Police seized 11 mainland POS devices in the raid on Monday – two days after a pact was announced between the People’s Bank of China and the Macau Monetary Authority to prevent money laundering.
Police said the shops had used the internet to bypass standard procedures for over 4,500 cross-border credit card transactions involving more than 350 million patacas in total. The shops are thought to have made commissions when the cards were used.
The Ministry of Public Security said on Monday that illegal financing in the markets and money laundering were being targeted in an operation that would last until late November.
“Grey funds” were being transferred into and out of the country through underground money shops, posing a risk to foreign exchange management, disturbing the markets, and threatening the country’s financial safety, said Meng Qingfeng, vice-minister of public security.
