The start of the trial of former Macau gaming junket magnate Alvin Chau Cheok Wa was conducted at the Court of First Instance (TJB) yesterday afternoon, and he denied various illicit gambling activities and money laundering charges against him.
Including Chau, the high-profile case has 21 defendants. Chau is the case’s first defendant.
The case’s trial was initially scheduled to begin on September 2, but 11 of the 21 defendants were absent at that time, because of which the three-judge panel decided to postpone the trial until yesterday.
Lou Ieng Ha is the presiding judge.
However, 11 defendants were still absent from yesterday’s trial, but the panel decided to go ahead with the proceedings, i.e., the 11 defendants were tried in absentia.
Chau, born in Macau in 1974, headed the now defunct junket company Suncity Group.
Chau and six of his co-defendants have been remanded in custody since November last year. He and the other 20 defendants separately face all or some of the following charges: money laundering, illicit gambling activities, serious fraud, and involvement in a criminal organisation.
The government is also suing seven of the 21 defendants, including Chau, in a case of joint liability for HK$8.2 billion in unpaid gaming taxes.
During yesterday’s trial, prosecutor Lai U Hou accused Chau of having run illegal parallel betting schemes, and Chau repeatedly denied the allegations.
For the allegations, Lai showed evidence such as a few dozen records of Chau’s phone conversations and text messages that the police had intercepted. Lai said that the records indicated that Chau was controlling the operation of parallel betting schemes.
According to gaming industry sources, some of the now defunct junket operators ran untaxed parallel betting (aka side betting) schemes that reduced both the government’s gaming tax receipts and the gross gaming revenues of some of Macau’s gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires.
During yesterday’s trial, Chau replied that while he was aware of the operations of a company that was running illegal parallel betting schemes, he had never been involved in the schemes.
Chau insisted that the phone conservations between him and his subordinates were about his opinion on casino VIP rooms’ credit risk management, and was nothing to do with parallel betting schemes.
Chau also said that Suncity had a very good track record in running VIP gambling rooms, so it did not need to engage in parallel betting schemes.
Chau also said he thought that the parallel betting schemes were operated by Cheong Chi Kin, the case’s fifth defendant, who is among the case’s seven remand prisoners.
Furthermore, Lai also accused Chau of having illegally operated telephone betting and online betting in Macau, and Chau denied the allegations.
Chau said that Suncity transferred its telephone betting operations to the Philippines in 2015, and the operations were later transferred to another company there.
Chau also denied that he had illegally operated online betting in Macau.
Chau also insisted that none of Suncity staff had engaged in gaming promotion activities in the mainland.
The trial will continue this afternoon.
Reporters take photos of a Correctional Services Bureau (DSC) van entering the Court of First Instance (TJB) building’s car park before yesterday afternoon’s trial of former gaming junket mogul Alvin Chau Cheok Wa. – Photo courtesy of TDM
