Hong Kong suffered the largest share of losses in a cross-border operation targeting scams and money laundering across 10 jurisdictions. The effort resulted in thousands of arrests and uncovered total losses of US$752 million.
Hong Kong accounted for US$319 million of the losses uncovered, more than 40 per cent of the overall total. One Singaporean firm alone lost US$36 million in funds transferred to bank accounts in the city.
Police in Hong Kong worked with agencies in Brunei, Canada, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, the Maldives, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. The joint operation ran from March 10 to May 7 and involved 3,200 officers.
In total, 3,018 people were arrested across 138,000 cases involving online shopping scams, employment fraud, investment scams and telephone deception. Hong Kong police arrested 870 suspects aged between 13 and 83 and intercepted about HK$539 million in criminal proceeds.
