A Macau court has ordered a former employee of a local junket operator to repay nearly $13m in stolen funds.
On Monday, Macau’s Court of First Instance released a notice ordering Chao Ioc Mei, a former cage manager of VIP gaming promoter Dore Entertainment Co Ltd, to repay MOP 103m (US $12.9m) in funds she allegedly stole from Dore last year. The ruling stated that Chao’s whereabouts remain unknown.
In September 2015, word broke that a Dore-run VIP room at Wynn Macau had been hit by a massive internal theft, the value of which was originally pegged at HKD 2b ($258m). Subsequent reports downgraded the stolen sum to around HKD700m owed to 70-odd investors, many of whom had been offered higher than usual interest rates on their deposits by Chao without Dore’s knowledge.
Regardless of the amount, the theft – coming one year after an even larger theft from the Kimren Group junket – prompted other junket investors to request the withdrawal their funds, increasing the downward pressure on Macau’s already struggling junket industry.
Monday’s ruling ordered Chao to pay Dore 6% annual interest on the stolen sum, as well as various court costs. The ruling applies only to the sum directly owed to Dore via Chao’s theft, meaning individual investors will need to pursue their own claims. In August, Wynn Macau said it was dealing with “several” lawsuits from Dore investors re their missing funds.
Monday’s ruling came two weeks after Macau’s Court of Second Instance ruled that junket investor funds were the legal equivalent of bank deposits, and thus junket operators couldn’t claim that investors knew the risks of investing when they offered up their cash.
The ranks of Macau’s junkets thinned dramatically in the past two years as China cracked down on VIP gambling activity. The industry has consolidated among a handful of major players, while many junkets have refocused their attention on other Asia-Pacific casino markets.
