{"id":198301,"date":"2022-01-18T08:30:42","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T16:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=198301"},"modified":"2022-01-18T14:59:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T22:59:57","slug":"suncity-exec-gets-prison-for-refusing-to-answer-police-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-exec-gets-prison-for-refusing-to-answer-police-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Suncity Exec\u2019 Gets Prison Time for Refusing to Answer Police Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A woman arrested in November as part of Macau\u2019s Suncity investigation<\/a> has been suspended and sentenced to nine months in prison for refusing to cooperate with authorities.<\/p>\n

\"Suncity\"
Suncity Group Holding booth display at the Macau Gaming Show, seen above. Suncity\u2019s Macau junket arm was officially dissolved on December 1, a month after the arrest of Chau and the mysterious \u201cHo.\u201d (Image: Bloomberg<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a statement Monday, Macau\u2019s judiciary police said the woman, identified only by her last name, \u201cHo,\u201d had refused to answer questions during interviews. This was despite being informed by \u201cthe police and the Prosecutor\u2019s Delegate of her rights and duties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under Macau law, failure to testify without just cause is a crime punishable by up to three years in prison.<\/p>\n

The woman was one of 11 people detained on November 27, along with Suncity chairman and CEO Alvin Chau, Macau Business<\/em> reports.<\/strong><\/p>\n

They are being held on suspicion of criminal association, illicit gambling exploitation, and money laundering. If convicted,\u00a0the 11 suspects face up to 12 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Jane Doe<\/h2>\n

Ho was referred to Macau\u2019s Court of First Instance. At her sentencing, the judge noted that in addition to denying her transgression, she expressed no remorse for her actions. The suspended sentence is contingent on a \u201cdonation\u201d of 5,000 pacatas (US$623) within the next three months.<\/p>\n

The woman is believed to be one of Suncity Group\u2019s senior executives, Macao News<\/em> reports.<\/p>\n

\n

Casino.org<\/em> has been unable to find any women at the company named Ho who fulfilled such a role. However, there is one high-level female executive with that name listed at a well-known Suncity subsidiary<\/a>. But Casino.org<\/em> is unable to verify that this is the same person mentioned in the police statement. \u201cHo\u201d is a very common last name in the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The detention of Chau and ten of those who worked for him came just days after authorities in mainland China filed a warrant for his arrest, and it sent shockwaves through Macau\u2019s gaming industry.<\/p>\n

It signaled the end of the junket model in Macau that had once generated some 60 percent of revenues in the world\u2019s richest gambling hub.<\/p>\n

Out of Time for Junkets<\/h2>\n

Suncity was the biggest junket operator in the world. Chau had grown it into an international conglomerate, with interests in everything from real estate to resort development and movie production. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

But Chinese authorities are waging a war against cross-border gambling and have run out of patience with the junkets. For years, they have supplied Macau\u2019s casinos with a steady stream of wealthy Chinese mainlanders, lending them currency for gambling to bypass Beijing\u2019s strict controls on the movement of money.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Meanwhile, many junketers have been dogged by rumors of criminal association. This includes Chau, whom Australian authorities believe was once a member of the 14K Triads under notorious crime boss \u201cBroken Tooth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suncity\u2019s Macau junket branch, Suncity Gaming Promotion Company Limited, was officially wound up on December 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A woman arrested in November as part of Macau\u2019s Suncity investigation has been suspended and sentenced to nine months in prison for refusing to cooperate with authorities. In a statement Monday, Macau\u2019s judiciary police said the woman, identified only by her last name, \u201cHo,\u201d had refused to answer questions during interviews. This was despite being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":198304,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Suncity Exec\u2019 Gets Prison for Refusing to Answer Police Questions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Suncity executive referred to only as \u201cHo\u201d has gets prison for refusing to cooperate with Macau Alvin Chau illegal gambling investigation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/suncity-exec-gets-prison-for-refusing-to-answer-police-questions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Suncity Exec\u2019 Gets Prison for 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