{"id":207882,"date":"2022-04-04T08:48:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T15:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=207882"},"modified":"2022-04-04T11:06:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T18:06:15","slug":"the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a new revelation about its ties to Suncity Group and money laundering will damage the casino operator more.<\/p>\n

\"Alvin
Alvin Chau, the former CEO of Suncity Group. His involvement with Star Entertainment in Australia is damaging the casino operator’s future more than it already was. (Image: Wall Street Journal)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Star Entertainment already has to see the writing on the wall. It was bad enough that internal policies facilitated money-laundering activity, as revealed in the ongoing inquiry<\/a> in New South Wales (NSW). However, new allegations paint an even grimmer picture of the company’s future.<\/p>\n

“A criminal, a member of the 14K triad, and a scammer.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is how a Star executive previously described Chau, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. <\/em>However, the allegations weren’t enough to keep the casino operator from dealing with him.<\/p>\n

Suncity Group, the junket operator previously led by Alvin Chau<\/a> before his arrest in Macau, maintained a cozy relationship with Star for years. It was so friendly that casino executives looked the other way as Chau and Suncity passed millions of dollars daily through the company.<\/p>\n

Star Too Friendly with Suncity<\/h2>\n

Skye Arnott, a Star employee, told the ongoing NSW inquiry that Chau’s reputation and history were on the radar. However, no one at the company \u2013 not even Arnott \u2013 intervened. At the time, Arnott was Star’s compliance officer, and new in the role, she explained that she didn’t have all the skills and experience necessary to manage the risks.<\/p>\n

\n

The inquiry has produced surveillance footage that Star will have an impossible time defending. In it, a casino employee receives a bag from an unidentified individual in Salon 95, a VIP room exclusively for Suncity. In the video, the employee removes bundles of cash, which the individual later placed underneath the counter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Another video showed a similar scenario. A man walked into the office of Salon 95 with a black backpack that contained significant piles of cash.<\/p>\n

By the middle of 2018, Arnott and others knew that Suncity wasn’t playing by the rules. However, instead of requiring the company to adhere to financial regulations, Star only made superficial gestures. Arnott asserts that Star created controls to manage the risk but that no one implemented them appropriately.<\/p>\n

Extent of Suncity’s Operations at Star Unknown<\/h2>\n

It isn’t clear how much money transferred hands in the transactions shown in the surveillance footage. However, according to a previous report by Angus Buchanan, Suncity was able to launder AU$2 million (US$1.5 million) daily using different strategies and operations.<\/p>\n

\n

Buchanan previously worked for the Hong Kong Jockey Club and oversees Star’s due diligence and intelligence operations. He included other damning accusations in that report, as well. One places Chau as a figure in one of the biggest bank heists in history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chau was allegedly involved in a cyberattack linked to the Bangladesh Bank robbery<\/a> in 2016. The thieves stole $101 million but tried to take $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Chau was essentially using Star as a check-cashing store for years. His activities possibly started from as early as 2015 and continued through 2019. Suncity had exclusive access to Salon 95 beginning in 2016, and it might be impossible to ever ascertain exactly what went on behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

Star is already making changes<\/a> that it hopes will save it from the worst-case scenario \u2013 a suspension of its license. However, Crown Resorts tried the same tactic after it became a target. Star’s case may prove that the house doesn’t always win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a new revelation about its ties to Suncity Group and money laundering will damage the casino operator more. Star Entertainment already has to see the writing on the wall. It was bad enough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":207881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-04T15:48:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-04T18:06:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Erik Gibbs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/\",\"name\":\"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-04T15:48:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-04T18:06:15+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\"},\"description\":\"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":960,\"caption\":\"Alvin Chau, the former CEO of Suncity Group. His involvement with Star Entertainment in Australia is damaging the casino operator's future more than it already was. (Image: Wall Street Journal)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Commercial Gaming\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca\",\"name\":\"Erik Gibbs\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Erik Gibbs\"},\"description\":\"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org","description":"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org","og_description":"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-04-04T15:48:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-04T18:06:15+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Erik Gibbs","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Erik Gibbs","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/","name":"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg","datePublished":"2022-04-04T15:48:36+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-04T18:06:15+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca"},"description":"Star Entertainment has virtually no chance of walking away from the New South Wales inquiry unscathed. Already facing allegations of serious wrongdoing, a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Alvin-Chau-Suncity.jpg","width":1280,"height":960,"caption":"Alvin Chau, the former CEO of Suncity Group. His involvement with Star Entertainment in Australia is damaging the casino operator's future more than it already was. (Image: Wall Street Journal)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/the-star-accused-of-looking-the-other-way-as-suncity-laundered-millions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Commercial Gaming","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/commercial-gaming\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Star Accused of Looking the Other Way as Suncity Laundered Millions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/21bf33e35290a1da9c572298dac6b7ca","name":"Erik Gibbs","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-13-96x96.png","caption":"Erik Gibbs"},"description":"Erik Gibbs covers global gaming news for Casino.org. His scope includes Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Erik has covered gaming markets in Europe and Asia for the past six years. Erik joined Casino.org in November 2021. Erik has written for numerous gambling- and a handful of industry publications has quoted casino-related media outlets over the years and. He is always excited to bring a new perspective on what's happening in the gaming space. Erik enjoys following the global gaming industry, paying particular attention to innovation and regulation. Originally from the US, Erik has spent extensive time living in various countries across the globe. He enjoys anything that has to do with the outdoors and exploration, although he readily admits that he would have no trouble spending all day fishing on a boat. He currently resides in Spain. Contact Erik at erik.gibbs@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/erik-gibbs\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}