HK-Macau money-laundering links in spotlight
The mainland's richest man definitely would not be the first person to have laundered money through the casino cruise ships anchored in Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour.
But Wong Kwong-yu's high profile case sheds rare light on the role that gambling in Macau and Hong Kong plays in moving mainland millions of dollars offshore.
Caijing magazine reported last month that mainland police had arrested Lin Chiu, 'one of the investors behind the Neptune fleet of casinos', at the end of last year for allegedly laundering money on behalf of the former Gome Electrical Appliances Holding chairman.
With Lin's help, Wong made more than 10 trips to Hong Kong and Macau last year, according to the report.
So who is Lin and, more importantly, how did he allegedly help the richest man in China launder a small fortune?
Some mainland and Hong Kong press reports identified Lin Chiu as the brother of Lin Cheuk-fung, the chairman of listed casino junket investor Neptune Group.
Formerly Massive Resources International Corp, the firm owns 70 per cent of a Hong Kong-based gambling cruise ship also named Neptune, according to stock exchange filings. It also invests in VIP junkets that operate at the StarWorld, Sands and Venetian casinos in Macau.
Junkets are run are middlemen who bring high rollers to a casino, issue them credit for gambling and collect their debts.
The nature of Lin Chiu's relationship to Neptune, if any, remains unclear: he is not listed as a director, substantial shareholder or connected person of the listed company.
Still, laundering money through a casino is a considerably more straightforward business. Consider the case of Omar III.
In December 2003, the casino aboard the casino cruise ship owned by Stanley Ho Hung-sun was targeted as part of an elaborate A$150 million (HK$743 million) theft of the Australian federal government employees' pension fund.
On Christmas Eve, JP Morgan Chase was tricked into wiring HK$175 million to a Hong Kong bank account owned by HK Power, a company controlled by Benny Ki Ming-bao, a junket operator with a running account at the Omar III casino and a minority investor in the ship itself.
A pair of conspirators boarded the ship on December 29 and were issued gambling chips against the HK$175 million deposited with Mr Ki.
They spent HK$19.7 million on the tables and travelled to Macau several days later to pick up the difference - HK$155 million - which they no doubt expected to be in the form of a cheque from a legitimate casino company. After the cheque was deposited or cashed at a bank, the money would be successfully laundered.
But they were stopped after JP Morgan became aware of the fraud, and the funds were frozen. While the details remain unclear, Wong and Lin appear to have run into a similar losing streak.
