China: 36 found guilty in Suncity-linked trial
36 people have been sentenced to up to seven and a half years in prison for their involvement in a cross-border illegal gambling syndicate.
China.- An intermediate court in Zhenjiang province’s Wenzhou has found 36 people guilty of belonging to a cross-border gambling syndicate. The court has sentenced them to up to seven and a half years in prison and issued fines of between RMB50,000 and RMB3m. Thirty-five defendants accepted the verdict and one will appeal.
According to China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, the syndicate allegedly led by Alvin Chau Cheok Wa made illegal cross-border payments and transactions worth about RMB1.16bn (US$163.5m).
The Wenzhou court stated on Friday: “The amount of money involved in these cases is particularly huge, and the syndicate has severely disrupted the country’s social order.”
Starting in 2015, the syndicate set up online gambling platforms in the Philippines and other places to organise tours and services for Chinese residents to gamble or participate in online gambling in Macau.
According to CCTV, the court found the group provided cross-border currency exchange and settlement services and collected gambling debts through asset management companies and underground banks established by the consortium on the mainland.
By November 2021, the consortium had expanded to more than 280 mainland Chinese shareholders, more than 38,000 Chinese agents and more than 60,000 players.
Chau was not one of 36 defendants in the three cases handled by the Wenzhou court. Charges against him are being dealt with in another case. A separate trial of the former Suncity Group CEO has begun in Macau, following his detention last November on charges of illicit gambling, criminal syndicate, fraud, and money laundering.
Only two defendants partly accept charges in Suncity trial
The defendants in the Suncity junket trial finished giving evidence on September 28, with only two pleading guilty to some of the charges against them. Only 10 defendants actually attended the trial.
Some 21 defendants, including Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, have been charged with illegal gambling activities, participation in a criminal group, fraud and money laundering. According to the indictment, they ran a criminal syndicate that cheated the Macau government out of HK$8.26bn (US$1.05bn) in tax revenue between March 2013 and 2021.
A day after, on September 29, Faye Lao, a former accounting director at Suncity Group, declared that the Macau junket operator Suncity was involved in off-books betting. He was the first witness to say that Suncity was directly linked to under-the-table betting.
According to Macau Business, Faye Lao told prosecutor Lai U Hou that the side betting businesses, Main Camp, belonged to Suncity. When asked if Chau Cheok Wa owned Main Camp, Faye Lao said: “It can be said Main Camp belonged to Chau Cheok Wa.”
Faye Lao also said that profits were deposited into an “Operation Reserve Card” account, one of Suncity’s VIP cash accounts. She did not specify whether the account belonged to the junket operator, its clients, or its shareholders
