Alleged scam involving Macau’s Melco Crown shares reaches Belgium

At least a Belgium investor has been offered to buy shares in Melco Crown Entertainment at a 10 percent discount by callers claiming to be part of Mitsubishi Group (which includes Japan’s biggest lender), an investigation by Macau Business shows. This follows a group of three Norwegian businessmen who had been made the same offer. Last week, Mitsubishi Group already announced it was investigating the possible scam. Melco Crown will consider taking action after studying the case, spokeswoman Maggie Ma said, quoted by Bloomberg. According to the Belgium investor, who wishes to remain unnamed, the calls were followed up by e-mails and documents linked to an alleged Mitsubishi Group. The documents stressed that the minimum expected return on the investment would be above 150 percent. He was proposed to buy a total of 1,500 shares in an investment totalling US$5,302 (MOP42,000). In the documents, Melco Crown is identified as a “star company”, “the term we use to describe the gems that our analytical endeavours tend to discover from time-to-time”. Included in the documentation, there was an international telegraphic transfer form. The beneficiary stated was a company with no Internet presence and the money was to be transferred to a bank account in Taiwan.