Eighteen people aged 17 to 69 were arrested in a three-day Hong Kong police operation targeting alleged illegal moneylending and debt collection. Police said the arrests included people linked to a finance company, loan-promoting phone numbers, mule accounts and local debt collection. The suspects are accused of offences including unlicensed lending, charging excessive interest, money laundering, criminal intimidation and criminal damage.
Police said a finance company lent at annual rates as high as 160%, against a reported statutory cap of 48%. It paid borrowers the full loan, then required them to pay a large administrative fee, effectively keeping part of the money. In one example, a borrower took a HK$20,000 loan and was charged HK$6,000 in fees. Police calculated the effective annual rate for that loan at 500%.
Chief Inspector Wong Chi-tang of the New Territories South Region Anti-Triad Action Group said borrowers who obtained loans began receiving unsolicited calls offering further loans at annual rates of 500% or more. The offers promised approval without an in-person visit or proof of income. Borrowers who could no longer get credit from ordinary banks or licensed finance companies accepted the loans and were told to make repayments into different mule accounts.
The investigation followed an August criminal-damage report about a residential unit in Kwai Chung splashed with red paint in an alleged debt-collection attack.
Police searched a finance company in Mong Kok under warrant and arrested its person in charge and two staff members. They also arrested six people registered to phone numbers used to promote loans, six mule-account holders and three people over alleged debt collection in Sha Tin, Kwai Tsing and Lantau. Officers seized HK$100,000 in cash, computers and loan-application documents from the company.
Police estimated that the mule accounts had handled about HK$70 million in suspected criminal proceeds over the previous year.