Solaire bans 2 junket operators linked to Kim Wong

MANILA, Philippines – Bloomberry Resorts Corp., the listed operator of Solaire Resort & Casino of ports tycoon Enrique Razon, has banned for good two Chinese junket agents and their 18 players from playing in Solaire.

Chinese junket agents Gao Shu Hua from Beijing and Ding Zhi Ze from Macau were identified by Chinese junket operator Kim Wong as those behind the money laundering heist involving $81 million stolen from Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

“We banned them (forever), those Chinese guys,” Razon told reporters yesterday on the sidelines of Bloomberry’s annual stockholders meeting.

Wong still does business with Solaire, according to Razon.

Razon also said that Solaire has put in place stricter measures against junket operators.

“All of our junket operators, we know them. It’s really if there are new junket (operators) we’re very careful now. We study and delay this process to double and triple check (them) but 99 percent of our existing junket operators have been here for two years. We put them under severe check,” he explained.

Solaire was one of the destinations of the $81-million funds stolen by hackers from the Bank of Bangladesh which found its way to the Philippines through the Jupiter branch of Yuchengco-owned Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC).

It was on Feb. 4, 2016 when $81 million in stolen funds from the Bank of Bangladesh were deposited to RCBC. It later went to the casinos: $29 million to Solaire, $21.2 million to junket operator Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. Ltd. and $30.6 million to a person called Weikang Xu.

Razon said as a casino owner, he supports proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 (AMLA), but stressed that the root of the money-laundering scandal was the banking industry.

“The problem is with the banks. Where the problem really lies is that the money came from the banks. That’s what the government needs to solve,” he noted.

He also said that while he supports the inclusion of casinos in the coverage of the AMLA, the industry should have a higher threshold for suspicious transactions compared to the banks.

Under AMLA, the threshold for banks and financial institutions for suspicious transactions is P500,000.

“It’s an opportunity to get the law corrected but the amount is too small. In that case we have to report everybody. And it has to be suspicious,” Razon said on the existing threshold.

He also maintained that the money-laundering scandal did not affect business negatively.