Complaints made to police from those claiming to be investors in the cage operations of Macau junket operator Dore Entertainment Co Ltd already involve at least HKD330 million (US$42.6 million).
The filing of complaints from people seeking access to money began after news broke that Dore had been victim of an alleged internal fraud case involving a former employee.
A police spokesperson on Wednesday told reporters that the force had already received 30 complaints involving a total of HKD330 million from people presenting themselves as private investors in Dore’s cage operations. Based upon information given to police, the group is understood to include people from Macau, Hong Kong and Mainland China.
Dore says a former employee disappeared taking some money from its cage operations. The firm on Thursday said the former employee had taken over HKD100 million in total, public broadcaster Radio Macau reported. Dore, which runs VIP operations at the Wynn Macau casino hotel, has also filed a police report.
Following the case, news of which broke last week, several people describing themselves as investors in Dore’s cage operations began demanding the junket firm allow them to withdraw cash deposits placed with the junket operator.
It is common for junket operators in Macau to raise capital for their rolling chip programmes by offering private investors above-market interest rates for their deposits. Some media reports claim Dore was offering a 2 percent per month interest rate. Capital raised from such exercises is then typically used to extend credit to VIP players, most of whom come from mainland China.
On Wednesday a group of around 40 self-proclaimed investors in Dore’s cage operations held a protest in Macau outside the representative office of China’s central government – known as the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Macao SAR. A similar protest had taken place the day before, at the Macau Government’s headquarters.
