Hong Kong businessman, son surrender to police over abduction of cryptocurrency investor
- Investigations show seven-seater car used in victim’s abduction belongs to suspects’ family
- Insider says businessman was unable to get HK$15 million he allegedly invested in virtual currency through victim, who was unreachable sometimes
The pair, accompanied by their lawyer, turned themselves in at Tai Po Police Station on Wednesday afternoon, a source familiar with the case said on Thursday.
Police arrested the man, 70, and his 30-year-old son on suspicion of false imprisonment and assault, according to the force.
The two suspects were still being held for questioning as of Thursday morning.
The insider said the two suspects were not the captors who bundled the victim, 55, into a seven-seater vehicle after dragging her out of her car at Tai Lau Leng Village off Po Shek Wu Road in Sheung Shui at around 8.45pm on Tuesday. She was freed about an hour later.
But he said investigations revealed the car used in the abduction belonged to the suspects’ family.
He said preliminary investigations suggested the businessman was unable to get the money and the woman was sometimes unreachable.
During the abduction, the woman’s 43-year-old husband was attacked with a stun gun when he tried to intervene.
The couple suffered injuries mainly to their limbs and they were sent to hospital for treatment.
As of midday on Thursday, police were still searching for the four captors who abducted the cryptocurrency investor and assaulted her husband.
“We do not rule out the possibility that the four men were paid to carry out the job,” the source said.
Detectives from the Tai Po district crime squad are investigating the city’s second abduction in 32 hours.
Police arrested two men, aged 34 and 39, and a woman, 53, in connection with the case within 12 hours after the abduction.
Inspector Chan Kwan-to of the Yau Tsim district crime squad said on Tuesday that the case was linked to a financial dispute between the victim and the 34-year-old man involving HK$100,000.
He said the abduction occurred about six hours before the 39-year-old suspect allegedly tried to use joss sticks and candles to burn the wooden door of the victim’s home, but in vain.
Police handled 10,122 reports of violent crimes last year, up by 14.6 per cent on the 8,830 cases logged in 2022.
