Alvin Chau, Suncity trial scheduled to start today

September 2, 2022 Macau Crime & Legal

The trial of Alvin Chau Cheok Wa (pictured in a file photo), and other defendants linked to the now-defunct Macau casino junket Suncity Group Ltd, is set to start at 2.45pm today (Friday, September 2).

Macau’s Public Prosecutions Office has indicted Mr Chau, the founder of Suncity Group, and 20 other people for illegal gaming, criminal association, fraud, and money laundering.

The defendants are accused of running a criminal syndicate that cheated the Macau government out of about HKD8.26 billion (US$1.05 billion) in tax revenue from 2013 to 2021, according to a copy of the indictment reviewed by GGRAsia. A total of 92 witnesses has been asked to testify in relation to the trial.

According to the document, 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 mentioned in the indictment were charged with leading or being part of a criminal group, which carries a lighter sentence.

Mr Chau has also been charged with illegal gambling. The accusations include provision of illicit gaming activities in approved gaming venues, as well as running illicit online and proxy betting.

The indictment said the group led by Mr Chau ran for years a form of under-the-table betting for high rollers in Macau, referred to by some commentators and government officials as the “multiplier”.

With the multiplier, the bet denominated at the casino gaming table actually represents a bet made privately that can be a multiple many times the ‘official’ one, thus avoiding paying on some bets Macau’s effective 39-percent tax rate on casino gross gaming revenue.

The indictment says that from March 2013 to March last year, the group ran multiplier bets with a value of HKD823.8 billion, generating illicit gains of “a minimum” of HKD21.5 billion.