Man in court over electronic goods worth $23 million

A 33-year-old Taiwanese man has appeared in Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts on October 12 to face a charge related to three deception cases involving $23 million worth of electronic goods.

The man was arrested at Hong Kong International Airport last Wednesday (October 10) as he was about to leave on a flight back to Taiwan.

In June and July this year, three companies in Taiwan received orders by fax and email from a Hong Kong trading company, to purchase computer accessories comprising mouse, keyboard, harddisk, webcam and video disc.

The three companies subsequently made reports to Hong Kong Police in August and September after they failed to receive payment from the Hong Kong company.

Regional Crime Unit (RCU) of New Territories South (NTS) took over the case for investigation in September. The unit found that the goods were shipped to Hong Kong, collected by the Hong Kong company and kept in a number of warehouses in the New Territories for shipment to overseas buyers.

The modus operandi of the Hong Kong company was to place an order with the Taiwanese companies with payment to be met by a Letter of Credit (LC). Each LC stated that the shipper was a Taiwanese company while the consignee was a bank.

However, the Hong Kong trading company arranged its own shipment by using a bogus logistics company set up in Taiwan. The bogus company then changed the shipper and the consignee on the Bill of Lading without the knowledge of the Taiwanese companies which did not receive any payment at the end.

A total of 2,376 boxes containing 1.5 million compact discs and digital video discs worth about $8 million were found in a container on a container vessel in Kwai Chung Container Port. Enquiries also believed that the rest of the stolen property was shipped overseas in mid-August.

The Taiwanese man was charged with one count of obtaining property by deception and appeared in Tsuen Wan Magistrates' Courts on October 12.

Investigations by the RCU of NTS are underway.

Police have appealed to trading companies to beware of this type of deception, especially when buyers request to arrange shipment themselves.


Police Report No. 1
Issued by PPRB

End/Monday, October 15, 2007