ICAC arrested five on alleged government's subsidy scam
發佈日期: 2025-08-14 21:37
TVB News
The Independent Commission Against Corruption arrested five people on suspicion of scamming
government subsidies through a scheme under the Social Welfare Department.
The scam involves a sum of 18 million dollars.
The ICAC received a referral case from the Social Welfare Department, which suspected someone might have scammed government benefits via the Community Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly.
After investigating the case, the ICAC launched an operation last month and arrested two men and three women, aged between 27 and 57.
A registered nurse and registered occupational therapist were among the arrestees. They were the masterminds of the case. The two also operated their own private care agency.
The duo started collaborating in 2023. After registering their care agencies under the voucher scheme, the suspects urged members of the public to arrange for senior citizens to join the government programme.
They then made false representations to the Social Welfare Department that the care agencies had offered home care and support services to the elderly -- to defraud the government to obtain subsidies.
The monthly subsidy of each applicant was 10,000 dollars, which was split between the care agencies and family members of the elderly.
The suspects also allegedly altered timesheets to conceal the fact that the agencies did not provide services to the elderly at home.
The ICAC said the care agencies had claimed to provide services to about 20 to 200 elderly applicants per month, receiving a total subsidy of 18 million dollars.
MATTHEW CHANG, Principal Investigator, Operations Department, ICAC: "This is an isolated case. The is the first time that we discovered the involvement of health care professionals as the masterminds of the fraudulent scams. Corruption is like cancer and we have to remove it, stop it at the early stage."
JENNY YAN, Assistant Director (Elderly), SWD: "SWD will consider terminating the service agreement with the service providers concerned.If there are subsidies released to any non-entitled body, the SWD will take appropriate actions to recover all the overpayments."
The ICAC said further law enforcement actions will not be ruled out as the investigation is ongoing.
