Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is in the news this week following revelations that a Chinese high roller suspected of money laundering had turned over A$855m (US $640.7m) at Crown casinos.
Chinese-Australian VIP Dan Bai Shun Jin is currently under investigation by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) after an AFP agent found vast discrepancies between Jin’s known income and his profligate gambling activity.
Jim, who had multiple real estate properties around the globe seized in 2013, claims to earn an annual salary of $300k in China but has so far produced no documents to support this claim.
This week, Jin’s wife lost a bid to convince the Victorian Supreme Court to lift a restraining order on a $2.7m home in Fremont, California based on the Court agreeing with the AFP that the home was likely purchased with laundered money.
According to figures supplied to the Court by a Crown compliance manager, Jin made more than A$140m in chip buy-ins since 2010 and wagered over A$855m at Crown Melbourne between 2005 and 2013. Jin has disputed these figures, while copping to “very high-stakes gambling and being involved in moving millions of dollars.”
At one point, Jin transferred S$6.3m ($4.6m) from Singapore to his Crown account. Jin is said to have won A$17m at Crown while losing US $6m at Las Vegas Sands’ Venetian property in Nevada. Crown has declined to specify whether Jin is still a client, saying it doesn’t comment on matters before the courts.
Crown also declined to say when exactly it might have had cause to question the source of Jin’s largesse, despite copping to being aware that Jin used multiple identity documents, including six different Australian passports.
Like many other casino operators, Crown has made Asian VIP gamblers central to its business model, but this reliance isn’t without its headaches. Crown has been accused of illegally offering credit to high rollers, while a former mega-whale who dropped $8m at Crown’s tables was shot dead on the streets of Sydney while under investigation for money laundering.
