News

MBS Casino Reportedly Investigated by the US & S’pore Authorities for Suspicious Activities

2020-06-05 , 12:29 pm

Money laundering: the process by which criminals use to disguise money obtained via illegal means by giving it a legitimate source.

Here’s a simple example:

You stole $1,000 from your neighbour’s house.

When the police come knocking, you show a lottery slip which showed that you have won the second prize on Wednesday’s 4D results from a $1 bet.

There you go, $1,000 transfer into your bank account explained.

But you didn’t win the lottery. In fact, you got the ticket from the original ticket winner by buying the already-redeemed lottery ticket for $10.

The Singapore casino of billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands Corp is being investigated for facilitating such transactions.

In case you don’t know what casino that is, it’s the one at Marina Bay Sands (MBS).

US Department Of Justice Conducting Investigations

According to the Straits Times, the Justice Department issued a “grand jury subpoena” to a former compliance chief of Marina Bay Sands in Jan 2020.

Bloomberg revealed that they are asking for:

an interview
or documents showing “money laundering facilitation” and any abuse of internal financial controls

Currently, sources say that the investigation is still in its early stages and investigators are trying to find out if whistleblowers were retaliated against.

Singapore Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) Also Probing MBS

According to the same report, Singapore’s regulatory authority is also looking into the casino’s money transfer policy.

A spokesperson for the agency says they can’t comment as investigations are ongoing but added that no, they did not receive a request from the Department of Justice to work on it.

They are simply “committed to ensuring that the casinos in Singapore, including Marina Bay Sands, remain free from criminal influence or exploitation, and takes a serious view of any allegations of unauthorized money transfers.”

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Previously:

In 2019, Wang Xi filed a lawsuit against MBS, wanting to recover $9.1 million that was allegedly sent to other patrons back in 2015 without his approval.

The Singapore Police Force is looking into his complaints and CRA asked the casino to look into its third-party transfer process.

Junket operators, or International Market Agents (IMA) as they are called in Singapore, typically lure in high rollers (VIP gamblers) to gamble at the local casinos.

Some third-party transfers are made through junket operators and MBS found a group of employees violating accepted transfer procedures.

These actions were reportedly stopped in 2018 after MBS “thoroughly reviewed the matter”.

MBS, One Of The Most Profitable Casinos In The World

While locals have mostly shunned going to Singapore casinos because of the entry levy, MBS is acknowledged as one of the most profitable casinos in the entire world.

It accounts for more than one-fifth of the revenue, and about 1/3 of the operating income, of Las Vegas Sands, its US parent company.

It’s Asian operations, alone, contributes about 85% of the company’s revenue in 2019. Asian operations include the world’s gambling capital, Macau.

In 2013, Las Vegas Sand paid US$47.4 million after it admitted that it failed to report suspicious deposits by a high-stakes gambler in Las Vegas.

In 2017, it paid US$6.96 million for allegedly violating US law by bribing government officials in China and Macau.

They had also knowingly failed to ensure the legitimacy of about US$5.8 million paid to a business consultant.

Yup, all the amount paid are pretty high-stakes, if you ask me.