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http://casinoleaks-macau.com/2-21-2012.html
February 21, 2012
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) yesterday reported on the story of Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang Yam Kuen caught attending a banquet at a high-roller VIP club in the City of Dreams resort in Macau. The Chinese-language paper Oriental Daily originally broke the news.
The SCMP, relaying the Oriental Daily story, noted that Tsang was allegedly pictured “sharing a table with tycoon Thomas Lau Luen-hung and Sing Tao News chairman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok.”
Below are a few additional details on some of the principals from the story, and their ties to Macau gaming:
Thomas Lau an investor in Wynn Macau Ltd – According to Wynn Macau’s “Global Offering” filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September 2009, Thomas Lau Yuen Hung’s (劉鑾鴻) BVI-based firm High Action Ltd agreed to subscribe to over 40 million Wynn Macau shares. See an excerpt from Wynn Macau’s listing document below:
Lau’s brother applied for a Macau concession – Thomas Lau and his brother, Joseph Lau Yuen Hung (劉鑾雄), are partners together in the Hong Kong listed firm Lifestyle International Holdings Ltd (firm’s 2010 annual report), a holding company for the Hong Kong and mainland retail stores SOGO and Jiuguang. Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu Tung (a major shareholder in Macau conglomerate STDM) and members of his family are also directors in Lifestyle.
On December 9, 2001 the SCMP reported that Joseph Lau in tandem with Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum (龔如心) submitted a bid for one of Macau’s gaming concessions under the banner “Baia da Nossa Sehora Entertainment Company” – the actual name was Baía da Nossa Senhora da Esperança Entertainment Company Limited, which was incorporated in 2001 with a registered capital of 400 million Macau Patacas. The venture of course failed to win one of the three initial concessions.
Click here to view the report from Macau’s “Commission for the First Public Tender to Grant Concessions to Operate Casino Games of Chance” to see references to Baía da Nossa Senhora’s failed bid. The document was obtained from a publicly available Clark County, Nevada lawsuit.
MGM Partner Pansy Ho linked to Charles Ho – A reported guest at Donald Tsang’s table, Charles Ho Tsu Kwok (何柱國) heads the Hong Kong-based media conglomerate Sing Tao News Corporation Limited.
Pansy Catilina Ho Chiu King (何超瓊), the daughter of Stanley Ho and chairperson of the listed gaming firm MGM China Holdings Limited, has served as an independent non-executive director at Sing Tao since 2001.
Identity of a junket operator at Li Ying Club – Macau corporate records disclose that the licensed junket firm “Hou Hou Entertainment Limited” operates out of the Li Ying Club in the City of Dreams. The Macau government’s business registry posted the following entry in its business registry on June 7, 2010:
The filing shows that Hou Hou Entertainment appears to operate its own branded VIP club on the second level of the Li Ying Club.
Hou Hou Entertainment, incorporated in Macau in April 2007, is 100% owned by a Hong Kong-based woman named Mak Mei To. She is also the company’s lone director.
Ms. Mak is also affiliated with a number of registered enterprises in Hong Kong. See the chart below, based on Hong Kong Companies Registry filings, for more details:
| Company Name | Incorp. | Director/Ownership (1) | Director/Ownership (2) | Other individuals affiliated |
| Greatmean Investment Ltd | 17-03-2009 | Mak Mei To (100%) | ||
| Kingsway Finance Ltd | 30-11-2011 | Chan Ying Kit (80%) | Mak Mei To (10%) | Cheung Hoi Ying |
| Long Well Inc. Ltd | 08-10-2009 | Mak Mei To (90%) | Chan Ying Kit (10%) | |
| Loyal Winner Ltd | 12-12-2011 | Chan Ying Kit (90%) | Mak Mei To (10%) | |
| Mega Venture Investment (Group) Ltd | 28-04-2010 | Mak Mei To (100%) | ||
| Wealth Elegant Ltd | 10-09-2004 | Mak Mei To (35%) | Mok Tung Hei | Mok King Hor (30%), Chan Tak Man (30%) |
Monday, March 05, 2012 4:45:21 PM
Casino Leaks “leaks” controversial features
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Like WikiLeaks’ cable intelligence, CasinoLeaks-Macau has also “leaked” some controversial stories on its website, including the connection of imprisoned gang leader Wan Kuok Koi to Macau’s current gaming scene. It also alleges that Wan’s main rival, alleged gang boss Lai Tong Sang has ties to the major junkets, and also that Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang Yam Kuen’s has links to tycoons related to Macau’s gaming industry.
The website is publishing a series of features, an essay on junkets and VIP gaming in Macau. It began publication with a spotlight on the ongoing corporate connections of Wan Kuok Koi, better known as “Broken Tooth Koi”, a gangster intimately associated with Macau’s gaming scene prior to the arrival of US gaming companies in the early 2000s. He was jailed in 1999 for gang related crimes and is due for release in 2012.
CasinoLeaks explores Wan’s connection to the gaming sector, mostly through the business links of his gang followers (many of them convicted by courts and now released from jail). The website says that some of the companies run by his fellow mobsters still have business relations with some major casinos, among them the Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM) founded by tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun; and even to current members of the Macau Legislative Assembly.
The website also covers Wan’s rival, the alleged crime boss Lai Tong Sang, saying that “Lai and his reputed wife…appear to retain ties to junket operators to the present.” According to some Chinese sources, Lai’s gang has expanded to the most profitable VIP gaming rooms during the past decade when Macau’s gaming industry has undergone most rapid development, while Wan was jailed in Coloane.
Some news reports in local and Hong Kong media says Wan is preparing for a return to the gaming industry after his expected release later this year, prompting fears in the casino sector and even in the government that a new round of bloodshed is looming similar to the immediate years before the handover to China.
The website also promises to profile “major VIP room and junket operators, some of whom are linked to alleged organized crime figures”, as well as release information on mainland Chinese involved in Macau’s gambling industry. CasinoLeaks says it has discovered a connection between alleged former associates of Wan and Fujian Province-based Xiamen Airline, a subsidiary of the New York Stock Exchange-listed China Southern Airlines Company Ltd, or China Southern. The website says the associate now still holds nearly half of the shares of the airline’s subsidiary, while the controlling share-holder remains Xiamen Airline.
The website’s launch comes at a sensitive time for US gaming interests in Macau, with Las Vegas Sands and its Macau subsidiary Sands China under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice, while Wynn Resorts and potentially its subsidiary Wynn Macau are also subjects of a preliminary SEC probe. Not to mention Wynn founder Steve Wynn’s fierce dispute with one of its major shareholders, Japanese billionaire Kazuo Okada, who is accused of bribing Philippines gaming official, trying to set up a casino in the country
http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/34238-CasinoLeaks-leaks-controversial-features.html
more ……………
CASINOLEAKS-MACAU NEWS & UPDATES
March 2, 2012
A reputed Macau crime boss from the 1990s has ties to active Macau junket operators according to corporate and property records from the territory.
During the mid-to-late 1990s an individual named Lai Tong Sang (賴東生) was described by dozens of mainstream news outlets, including the South China Morning Post and Canada’s Vancouver Sun and Globe and Mail, as the then leader or, in some cases, the “dragon head” of the Wo On Lok (aka, Shui Fong) triad.
Click HERE to continue reading…
March 1, 2012
Scrolling through the 2011 Interim Report for SJM Holdings Limited, the parent company of Macau casino concession holder Sociedade de Jogos de Macau (SJM), you will come across a disclosure concerning “satellite” casinos. The casinos are operated in “accordance with service agreements” with “third party promoters.”
This arrangement has led some gaming analysts to scratch their heads. Gaming scholar I. Nelson Rose in an interview last year with the Macau Daily Times noted that one of the “strange” aspects of Macau gaming regulations is that licensed casino operation “could have these partnerships where people who don’t have concessions can run the casino and share in the profits.”
Click HERE to continue reading…
February 29, 2012
On the heels of a lengthy piece by Macau Business magazine surveying the Macau junket world following the DICJ’s annual release of it licensed junket list, CasinoLeaks-Macau is posting an analysis on “junket turnover” in the market, based on the DICJ’s limited data.
One way the junket market has expressed volatility is through licensee turnover. This is measurable, to a degree. The DICJ junket licensure list includes both individual and corporate license holders. From 2006 to 2012 there were a total of 328 companies and 110 individuals that, at one time or another, held a license as a junket operator in Macau.
Click here to continue reading…
February 28, 2012
CasinoLeaks-Macau is continuing its series examining the corporate network established in the 1990s by members of Wan Kuok Koi’s (aka, Broken Tooth Koi) convicted 14K gang to see if any individuals linked to the companies have had ties to Macau gaming. Previously, we looked into companies connected to Chan Meng Kam’s Golden Dragon Group. Chan, along with several of his relatives and business associates, have had profit participant stakes in Macau gaming operations. Some, such as Chan Meng Pak (陳明白) and Ma Koc Hong (馬國康) are licensed as junket representatives by the Macau Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ).
This post will explore another set of companies with past ties to members of Broken Tooth’s gang, with a particular emphasis on Broken Tooth’s younger brother Wan Kuok Hong (also often identified as “Wan Kuok Hung”). We will also reexamine the firm Tong Long Development Company Limited, which we first brought up in a previous posting.
Click here to continue reading…
February 27, 2012
Previously we noted that an individual named Vong Tat Hou was listed as a one-time director and shareholder for the Macau-based firm Global International Tourist Company Limited (in Portuguese: Companhia de Turismo Internacional Wán Yu, Limitada). The name “Vong Tat Hou” was identified by numerous news outlets as one of the members of Wan Kuok Koi’s (aka Broken Tooth Koi) convicted criminal gang. The South China Morning Post reported on December 2, 1999 that Vong had been arrested the previous day by Guangdong Public Security. Vong had been convicted in absentia in Macau earlier that year for triad related crimes, according to the article.
Another director at Global International, Chan Meng Kam, was reportedly identified in U.S. State Department cables as believed to be “linked to the triads.” Chan is member of the Macau Legislative Assembly.
This post will explore Global International in greater detail, including its ties to the mainland China state enterprise.
Click here to continue reading…
February 23, 2012
During the 1990s, Macau 14K leader Wan Kuok Koi (aka “Broken Tooth Koi”) emerged as the then-Portuguese colony’s most infamous crime boss. He was featured in Time and Newsweek magazines. Following a wave of brutal gang violence in Macau in the mid-90s, government authorities arrested and later convicted Broken Tooth along with eight gang associates for triad-related crimes. Many have since reentered society, with Wan himself reportedly the last still serving a prison sentence, though he is scheduled to be released in December of this year.
Prior their jailing, Macau corporate record filings show the names of Wan Kuok Koi and members of his 14K gang were linked to a string of at least 10 Macau-based companies, with an even larger network of business partners and associates (see diagram below). CasinoLeaks-Macau has launched its own endeavor to reconstruct this corporate network and see if anyone formerly (or currently) linked to these companies is still involved in Macau gaming.
This post will focus on three companies: East Dragon Jewelry & Goldsmith Company Limited, Global International Tourist Company Limited, and Tong Long Development Company Limited.
These three companies, each in 1990s Macau corporate record filings list as directors and shareholders the names of convicted 14K gang members, also appear tied to a Macau-based conglomerate called Golden Dragon Group, headed by Chan Meng Kam (陳明金), an elected member of Macau’s Legislative Assembly. Chan, his family members, including Chan Meng Iok (陳明旭) and Chan Meng Pak (陳明白), and Golden Dragon Group, are all involved in Macau gaming.
Chan Meng Kam has also recently received some negative publicity as a result of the leaked U.S. diplomatic cables. The Macau Daily Times, reporting on the cables, disclosed in a September 6, 2011 article the U.S. Hong Kong consulate’s take on Chan Meng Kam: “We have yet to meet anyone who does not believe Chan is linked to the triads.”
Click here to continue reading…
February 21, 2012
The South China Morning Post (SCMP) yesterday reported on the story of Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang Yam Kuen caught attending a banquet at a high-roller VIP club in the City of Dreams resort in Macau. The Chinese-language paper Oriental Daily originally broke the news.
The SCMP, relaying the Oriental Daily story, noted that Tsang was allegedly pictured “sharing a table with tycoon Thomas Lau Luen-hung and Sing Tao News chairman Charles Ho Tsu-kwok.”
CasinoLeaks-Macau.com is providing a few additional details on some of the principals from the story, and their ties to Macau gaming.
Click here to continue reading…
February 17, 2012
Macau’s most infamous gangster, Wan Kuok Koi, is scheduled to be released from prison in December, according local news sources. Widely known by his moniker “Broken Tooth Koi,” Wan has served a nearly fourteen-year jail term in Coloane Island, following a 1999 conviction for a series of gangland crimes.
Investigative reports on Broken Tooth and the 1990s Macau gambling scene by the Far Eastern Economic Review, Time Magazine, Newsweek, and journalist Bertil Lintner detail how Wan rose up the ranks of Macau’s 14K triad, ultimately claiming a top post in the criminal gang and seizing control over some of the territory’s lucrative VIP gambling rooms – then operating out of Stanley Ho’s STDM casinos. Reportedly, Koi’s high-profile and flamboyant style, coupled with his aggressive moves to claim an ever-greater VIP room market share eventually sparked a bloody street war between the 14K and rival triad factions – most notably the Wo On Lok (or “Shui Fong”) triad. News outlets reported dozens of gangland murders during the late 1990s. High profile kidnappings, car bombings, and assassinations against government officials also occurred. On May 1, 1998 a bomb detonated in police chief António Marques Baptista’s car, although he was unscathed. Broken Tooth was arrested 12 hours later […]
Click here to continue reading.
February 16, 2012
The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) today launched a new website, CasinoLeaks-Macau.com, dedicated to exploring the booming gaming market of Macau, a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.
The IUOE has over 1,000 casino stationary engineer members in Nevada, and accordingly the security and integrity of Nevada gaming and its institutions are intimately related to our members’ wages, hours, and working conditions. As several Nevada-based gaming companies began establishing casino operations in Macau, we monitored their progress as their success or failure abroad can affect our members in Nevada. We have followed with growing alarm as news outlets and government agencies have reported on alleged organized crime activity, including money laundering, in Macau’s now U.S. $33 billion gaming industry.
Due to a dearth of concrete information on Macau gaming supplied by either regulators (in Macau and in the U.S.) or the casino companies themselves, particularly concerning the VIP room and junket industry, we have begun conducting our own research into Macau, which we will begin to roll out in this website.
To start, we are publishing a list of the owners and directors behind nearly 150 of Macau’s junket companies. To our knowledge no such list exists in the public sphere. We are also providing an initial list of over 600 prominent individuals who have been linked to the Macau gaming industry, along with some of their corporate affiliations. We will be adding to these lists over time. The site will also analyze Macau’s problematic gaming regulations, provide gaming statistics for the territory, and offer details on the six concession/sub-concession holders.
In the coming weeks we will begin providing extensive profiles on Macau’s major VIP room and junket operators, some of whom are linked to alleged organized crime figures.
This lack of transparency in Macau, particularly concerning the junkets and VIP rooms, we believe ultimately undermines the credibility of the whole system. We welcome reader feedback and intel. Help us shed light on Macau.