An unfolding crypto scam run by a coffee investment venture, as well as a shocking child abuse case, led the local news this week. Read on for details of these stories and others covered by the City desk.

In today’s edition:

• ‘Fun Coffee’ not so fun

   

• Savage abuse

   

• Stranded ships

‘Fun Coffee’ not so fun

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 at least HK$104 million under the name “Fun Coffee”, a coffee investment enterprise that claimed to be based in Phu Quoc, Vietnam.

As more victims came forward to explain how they were lured into assembling their own teams to maximise their rewards, a lawmaker warned that the scam could have conned more than 1,000 people.

Savage abuse

A 37-year-old mother who abused and starved her five-year-old son to death was sentenced to 22 years in prison, with the judge condemning a crime that exposed a “savage nature utterly devoid of the empathy inherent to motherhood”.

The boy weighed 9.7kg, about half the normal weight for his age, and was one metre tall when he died in 2022. An autopsy indicated he had 129 injuries on different parts of his body.

Authorities also faced hard questions over missed red flags before the boy’s death, as the judge lamented that his fate could have been different had social workers noticed he was “just skin and bones” while in the care of his mother, who had a history of drug abuse.

Stranded ships

With the US-Israeli war on Iran having lasted more than five months despite intermittent truces, the Hong Kong Shipowners Association revealed that as many as 80 of its members’ ships and 1,600 seafarers were stuck in or near the Strait of Hormuz.

While the crew members have enough supplies and face little immediate danger, a representative of the association warned that re-routing commercial vessels could inevitably raise shipping costs and affect consumer prices.

Visit SCMP.com for these stories and more. The weather is expected to be very hot – 37 degrees Celsius or above – over the weekend under the influence of Tropical Cyclone Dolphin, so stay hydrated!

Politics

• Hong Kong ‘actively considering’ dedicated offence to fight persistent child sex abuse

   

• Hong Kong urged to boost public housing space and speed up flat allocation

   

• 500 Hong Kong students get taste of military life as PLA summer camp returns

   

• Burst pipes increase pressure on Hong Kong to replace ageing water mains

   

• Nominations for Hong Kong’s Election Committee to run from October 7 to 20