Wealthy Chinese gamblers have allegedly been encouraged to deposit millions of dollars into a junket operator’s Macau bank account, a red flag in respect of money laundering controls, an Australian regulatory inquiry heard yesterday in the latest chapter of the Star Entertainment Group saga.
The gaming operator of The Star has allegedly endorsed the affluent Chinese players to deposit to the account given its own bank would not touch the funds, as cited in a report issued by The Sydney Morning Herald, through an agreement with a person who worked for the “junket.”
Present at the hearing is The Star’s general manager of finance and commercial, Michael Whytcross, who testified that at least AUD76 million (around MOP460 million) had been transferred to the casino through a back channel over a period of nine months back in 2018 and 2019.
This revelation comes following The Star NSW regulatory manager David Aloi’s testimony Monday, which expressed concerns about money laundering, as he said that he had learnt of an AUD60,000 cash play in the VIP room, where the “Suncity Cage” is located.
Yesterday, the existence of the back channel was disclosed, which allowed the transfer of large cash deposits as Macau banks would not accept significant amount of cash deposits. This back channel was created as Bank of China closed The Star’s Macau bank account for “compliance reasons.”
Through Kuan Koi, former employee of a junket that was not mentioned in the inquiry, Chinese high-rollers were brought to the Star, and acted as a middle man whereby clients would deposit tens of millions of cash into his Macau bank accounts, which would later be transferred to The Star from an Australian bank account.
Koi, according to Whytcross, has no agreement with The Star that would oblige him to follow standard anti-money laundering processes, and has refused to register with Australia’s anti-money laundering agency, ASIC.
The ongoing inquiry was sparked by investigations by Australian news outlets Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and 60 Minutes last October, which alleged that the operator of the Australian casino had allowed Suncity to run a high-roller gambling business in the private room.
With the cancellation of numerous contracts between Suncity and casino regulators following the scandals surrounding the recent arrest of its CEO Alvin Chau, a senior executive of The Star admitted before an inquiry last week that the promoter to ultra-wealthy Chinese gamblers “was still operating at the Star, albeit not under the Suncity banner.”
