Hong Kong and Macau police have arrested eight people in a crackdown on an investment scam syndicate that cheated more than 200 people out of nearly HK$100 million (US$12.75 million) by promoting itself as a pioneer of “kinetic coffee philosophy”.
The syndicate, operating under the name Fun Coffee, established a presence in Hong Kong last year.
Fun Coffee says on its website that it is a coffee investment enterprise based in Phu Quoc, Vietnam, with assets of more than US$1 billion and a team of more than 5,000.
On the English-language website, which remained live on Tuesday, Fun Coffee describes itself as a pioneer of “kinetic coffee philosophy” and promotes what it called the world’s first “sports-coffee-value ecosystem”, offering customised coffee-based nutritional support to runners.
As of Monday, Hong Kong police said they had received 225 complaints from potential victims since last month, involving investments ranging from HK$3,000 to HK$9.63 million, totalling HK$94 million.
The victims, aged 32 to 83 and including retirees, said they were invited to download the Fun Coffee app before investing in virtual currency.