Court sells ex-junket manager’s assets in embezzlement case

The Court of First Instance has auctioned off the assets belonging to former junket manager Chan Yan Hung, who is accused of embezzling nearly HKD100 million from a VIP room at L’Arc Macau in 2016. The court-ordered sale is a step towards recovering the stolen funds.

The Court of First Instance has taken a significant step towards recovering the embezzled funds from a former Macau junket manager, Chan Yan Hung.

Chan, who was vice president of VIP operations at L’Arc Macau, allegedly embezzled almost HKD100 million from a VIP room in 2016 before disappearing without a trace.

The casino promptly reported the case to the Macau police, who investigated it as fraud but were unable to locate Chan.

To address the debts left behind by Chan, the Court of First Instance ruled in May 2021 that his wife would be jointly liable for HKD20 million of her husband’s debt, despite her having already filed an application for a division of property.

Now, the court has announced the auction of Chan’s assets.

The assets include two residential properties in Ocean Gardens, which were sold by the court for nearly MOP7.6 million as well as a parking space in Ocean Gardens valued at MOP1 million. Furthermore, shares in three of Chan’s companies will also be sold, although the total value of the sale is only MOP20,047.

The recovery of Chan’s assets marks a significant development in the battle against embezzlement in Macau’s VIP rooms.

Between 2014 and 2016, several cases involving the misappropriation of funds from VIP rooms came to light, drawing attention to the need for stricter regulations.

Notably, in 2021, the Court of Final Appeal of Macau held Wynn Macau Ltd and Dore Entertainment Company Limited jointly liable for stolen funds owed to a VIP customer.

These incidents have prompted Macau to implement a new Gaming Law in 2023, imposing stricter restrictions on junkets. The new laws prohibit junkets from entering revenue share contracts with concessionaires and from engaging in lending or borrowing money.

The auctioning of Chan Yan Hung’s assets by the Court of First Instance is a significant step towards recovering the nearly HKD100 million embezzled from L’Arc Macau’s VIP room in 2016. Victoria Chan