Macau’s Public Prosecutions Office has indicted Alvin Chau Cheok Wa (pictured in a file photo), former boss of Macau casino junket Suncity Group, for illegal gaming, criminal association, fraud, and money laundering. In total, 21 people have been indicted under the same criminal case, GGRAsia has learnt.
According to the indictment, Mr Chau has been charged with founding and leading a criminal group; crimes punishable with a minimum of eight years in jail. The other people were charged with leading or being part of a criminal group, which carries a lighter sentence.
The news of Mr Chau being indicted, was first reported by the Portuguese-language channel of public broadcaster Radio Macau.
He has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in November last year.
Mr Chau has also been charged for illegal gambling. Such offences allegedly included providing illicit gaming activities in approved gaming venues, as well as running illicit online and proxy betting.
Proxy gambling typically involves a gambling customer not physically present in a bricks and mortar casino, giving bet-placement instructions via telephone or digital device, to a person or “proxy” that is actually present at a live-dealer table in a casino. Proxy gambling is not permitted in the Macau market, according to a long-standing instruction from the city’s gaming regulator.
Other charges against Mr Chau and some of the other defendants involved money laundering, and fraud against the city’s six casino operators and the Macau Special Administrative Region, according to the indictment.
GGRAsia approached the city’s Public Prosecutions Office for comment, but had not received a reply by the time this story went online.
Mr Chau is also the former chairman and an executive director of Hong Kong-listed casino investor Suncity Group Holdings Ltd. He resigned from the positions with effect from December 1, and recently sold his controlling stake in the firm.
Separately, the Macau authorities are yet to bring any indictment against Levo Chan Weng Lin, boss of junket brand Tak Chun. Mr Chan was arrested in January on suspicion of being a triad leader.
