Hong Kong police have arrested 16 people for allegedly using bogus medical certificates to fraudulently withdraw over HK$4.3 million from their retirement savings funds.
Police said on Thursday that a syndicate had forged medical certificates to allow claimants to falsely claim they were totally incapacitated or suffered from a terminal illness to withdraw their Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) contributions early.
Police Superintendent Allan Chu of the Commercial Crime Bureau said at a press conference that nine men and seven women, aged between 29 and 63, were arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Two suspects were allegedly core members of the fraud ring, while the other 14 were suspected of using the syndicate’s services.
The syndicate members never actually met with the 14 people who sought to withdraw their funds early, Chu said.
Forged medical certificates
According to police, the syndicate placed advertisements on social media purporting to offer services that were ”legal and compliant,” charging no fees on unsuccessful applications.
The individuals seeking to use the service provided the syndicate with identity documents, bank account details, and login details for the electronic MPF platform.
The syndicate used the names of real doctors on forged medical certificates – without the physicians’ knowledge – and charged a 10 to 20 per cent commission on the claims totalling some HK$4.3 million.
The amount in each fraudulent application ranged from HK$110,000 to HK$600,000, police said.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the eMPF Platform Company Ltd expressed “grave concern” over the incident and said it would fully cooperate with the police.
It also said it had strengthened the vetting process for all applications for early MPF withdrawal, “particularly those submitted on the grounds of terminal illness or total incapacity, including verifying the authenticity of each medical certificate with relevant doctors to combat fraudulent activities.”
Under the Crimes Ordinance, forging or using false documents constitutes a criminal offence and may result in a maximum penalty of imprisonment for up to 14 years.
