A verdict in the trial of Macau junket boss Alvin Chau is expected this Friday, December 18. On December 1, as the months-long proceedings wound down, Chau made final statements asserting his innocence in the case, in which he and 20 others were charged with illegal gambling, money laundering and running a criminal syndicate.
“Suncity has never been a criminal syndicate nor a triad as alleged,” Chau said. He added that he had “no motive” to participate in illegal gambling, as his legal enterprise was successful on its own.
According to Macau Business, his company, the Suncity Group, was once the largest junket operator in the city, adding more than MOP300 billion (US$80 billion) in taxes to government coffers over the years.
“Suncity had actually helped improve the operational model of junket operators in Macau… which had become more ‘corporation-like’ and standardized,” Chau told the court. “When we earned MOP100, we put MOP99 back into Macau society and economy… What kind of triad was that?”
Chau was accused of taking under-the-table bets between 2013 and 2021, depriving the local government of HK$8.2 billion (US$1 billion) in tax revenues, and causing indirect losses for the city’s six gaming operators.
He spoke on behalf of former employees who have been implicated in the Macau case and a related case in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. In September, the Wenzhou court found 36 people guilty of illegal cross-border gambling under the syndicate supposedly run by Chau.
“All my colleagues have good educational backgrounds… They have no motives for committing the crimes,” Chau said. “I want to apologize to them and their families by putting them in misery. I hope the judges can let them walk free from court.”
Codefendants Jeffrey Si and Ellute Cheung, Suncity marketing executives, also declared their innocence.
“If the gaming industry was so dangerous, I promise I wouldn’t be involved in it ever again… I just want to go back to my family,” Si said, bursting into tears. Cheung was also tearful and said, “I’d never thought of committing any crimes and I was just doing my job.”
According to Asia Gaming Brief, the case is being tried under 1990s-era criminal syndicate legislation once used to prosecute Macau’s violent criminal gangs, “elements that have in no way been on the table in the current trial involving the formerly Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed company.”
Many defendants who spoke before the court at the final hearing wept. Chau remained stoic.
