The Star admits sending fabricated documents to BOC

The Bank of China has received fraudulent documents from Australian casino The Star relating to the source of a sum of money, proving that the deposited amount of money comes from the casino’s cage. 

In a NSW inquiry yesterday, The Star’s general manager of finance and commercial, Michael Whytcross, admitted that the “source of funds [was] completely false” and that The Star was making a “serious and deliberate misrepresentation,” as cited in a report issued by Australian Financial Review. 

The casino is under fire due to accusations of money laundering breaches, organized crime and fraud. 

Whytcross, who was based in the Hong Kong office and attends the Macau office every quarter, said yesterday that he was not initially aware of the fabricated document.

This statement follows his being questioned about the investigation into the fake letters in October 2021. 

Speaking to the inquiry yesterday, it was disclosed that in one email from December 2017, the casinos claimed to “provide proof of source of funds” in the account that was false.

It was also in December 2017 that the Bank of China shut down The Star’s bank account for “compliance reasons.”

Questioned whether such move was a breach of money laundering regulations, Whytcross said it was only “a very significant misrepresentation,” and further admitted when pressed by the counsel, “it would be certainly a high risk of money laundering.”

In a Tuesday inquiry, it was revealed that Chinese high-rollers have allegedly been encouraged to deposit millions of dollars into a junket operator’s Macau bank account, where a middle man was present. Clients would deposit tens of millions in cash into his Macau bank accounts, which would later be transferred to The Star from an Australian bank account.

The executive admitted 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.