Two men and a woman have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud in connection with an alleged scheme that induced people to invest in craft beer machines.

The suspects, aged between 46 and 54, were said to have held the roles of company director, office person-in-charge and investor recruiter, police said.

An investigation found that the alleged criminal syndicate began operating last November by luring people into investing in craft beer machines on the promise of high returns.

The syndicate are alleged to have claimed that the machines would be rented out on the mainland and that the annual return rate would reach 60 percent, according to police.

Officers said the syndicate held investment seminars and took prospective investors to its office to sample beer. It would initially pay returns to investors but later stopped.

Police said the syndicate had no operations in Hong Kong and that some of the invested funds were found to have been transferred to personal accounts.

So far, police have contacted six victims whose losses amounted to more than HK$4 million.




Edited by Azam Khan