The trial of former Suncity Group boss Alvin Chau and 20 others continues in Macau. The defendants are charged with running a criminal syndicate, taking illegal bets, money laundering and fraud.
The allegations, if true, may have cost the Macau government up to HK$8.2 billion (US$1 billion) in tax revenues between March 2013 and March 2021, and also siphoned off business from legitimate casinos in the city.
Macau Business reports that former employees of a company called the Tin Commercial Agency confirmed that part of their income was received in cash from Suncity’s accounting department; that company and another known as Astronomical Phenomenon Management and Consulting purportedly ran illegal under-the-table bets on behalf of Suncity. Some of the employees added that they initially applied for jobs at Suncity, but were assigned to work at Tin Commercial.
The outside businesses were also referred to as “the operation department” or “the operation.” Under-the-table bets, otherwise known as side bets or multipliers, are made at a casino, but represent only a small portion of the total bet made privately between gamblers and junkets. In this way, those parties avoid paying taxes on the bets.
In his defense, Chau denied that he and Suncity took illegal bets. He claimed that that business was run by Cheong Chi Kin, another defendant in the case who did not work for Suncity. The witnesses identified Cheong as the head of Tin Commercial.
On the stand, Chan I Kuan, formerly of Tin Commercial’s accounting staff, said she was told during her job interview that “Tin Commercial is Suncity.” Leong In Lan, who worked for both Tin Commercial and Suncity, said they were “two different companies” but she understood Tin Commercial to be a “subsidiary” of Suncity. And Lei Weng Chun, who once worked at Tin Commercial and facilitated under-the-table bets, said his former employer and Suncity provided “mutual assistance.”
Chau and Cheong both were shareholders of Suncity.
Another junket kingpin, Levo Chan of the Tak Chun Group, faces similar charges. His trial is due to start in December.
In related news, last Tuesday the Macau Public Prosecutions Office placed a witness in the Suncity case in custody, after accusing her of perjury. Jessie Lai I Teng, once of the junket’s marketing department, said the company did not engage in illicit betting operations. Another marketing executive, Ng Ka San, also said under-the-table betting was not a part of Suncity’s business. However, she added, high rollers who wanted to place this type of bet would be referred to the “operation department.”
“Not all the gamblers that engaged in multiplier bets in Suncity VIP rooms in casinos were referred by us (the marketing department),” she stated. “The organizational structure of Suncity did not have an ‘operation department.’”
