CCAC arrested 2 male suspects, surnamed Ieong and Chan, in the evening of the day before yesterday (February 13). Ieong, a prison guard, was suspected of taking advantage of his position to bring prohibited items to prison inmates
Category: Anti-Corruption Work Release method: Press Releases
Release:2007/02/15
The CCAC arrested 2 male suspects, surnamed Ieong and Chan, in the evening of the day before yesterday (February 13). Ieong, a prison guard, was suspected of taking advantage of his position to bring prohibited items to prison inmates. Yesterday (February 14) and today (February 15), the CCAC arrested 3 more suspects, including a prison guard surnamed Ao Ieong and two other male suspects surnamed Wong and Che. During investigation, someone confessed to having received money for bringing items to inmates. The 5 suspects were transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office today (February 15) on charges of giving and receiving bribes.
The CCAC suspected that Chan, who worked as a chef in a hotel, in collusion with some inmates, had offered money to prison guards for assistance in bringing prohibited items to the inmates. In the evening of the day before yesterday (February 13) near a fast food restaurant in the zone of Portas do Cerco, Chan gave a mobile phone and a "delivery fee" of MOP4,500 in cash to Che, a prisoner on parole, intending for Che to transfer the items to a certain prison guard who in turn would hand the items over to the inmates.
Afterwards, Chan immediately went to meet a uniformed prison guard surnamed Ieong in front of a Chinese restaurant in Avenida do Almirante Lacerda and gave Ieong a pile of MOP500 and MOP100 notes amounting to MOP12,000 in total and 47 red envelopes, which were to be transferred to an inmate surnamed Wong. It was suspected that the red packets were to be given to the prison guards on duty during Chinese New Year. The prison guard surnamed Ieong received a bribe of MOP1,000. CCAC investigators later intercepted Ieong in front of the prison in Coloane and found on him the above mentioned items and the alleged bribe.
At the same time, CCAC investigators arrested two men surnamed Chan and Che in two different locations. The investigators found on Che and in his home the mobile phone and money mentioned as well as a number of mobile phones and modified chargers which Che failed to explain their usage.
The Macao Prison also co-operated with the CCAC operations and ransacked the prison cells yesterday midnight (February 14) and discovered a batch of prohibited items including 5 mobile phones which could be used to download movies and a pile of prepaid phone cards. Preliminary investigation revealed that one of the mobile phones was the one given by Chan to the prisoner-on-parole surnamed Che and then smuggled into the prison.
The CCAC today (February 15) arrested another prison guard surnamed Ao Ieong and a middleman surnamed Wong. The middleman had allegedly assisted the prison inmates in offering advantages to the prison guards for smuggling alcoholic beverages into the prison.
During operation, the CCAC seized a number of deposit slips of a gaming company. It was believed that the inmates had been using the mobile phones to bet on soccer games and horse races and instructed their accomplices outside the prison to deposit money into specified accounts. The CCAC suspected that the accounts had been used for transferring bribes and for other illegal activities.
The CCAC investigations also revealed that some prisoners used to give red packets ranging from MOP100 to MOP500 to some prison guards during Chinese New Years. It was suspected that certain prison guards had been bribed to assist prisoners in smuggling cash and red envelopes into the prison.
