Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted 10 people for operating a cross-border money laundering ring that utilized Macau casinos to clean more than US$1 billion in funds using credit cards.
The Yunlin District Prosecutors Office said Monday it had cracked the case after receiving intelligence from the Criminal Investigation Bureau that a criminal group was suspected of recruiting a large number of money launderers to launder money in Macau through a sophisticated division of labor and cross-border operations.
The group, mostly aged between 35 and 40, were found to have consolidated illicit funds obtained in mainland China into cash or via bank transfer, using nominee accounts to conceal the source of the funds. The funds were then deposited into the accounts of selected “money launderers” and used as prepayment for credit card fees. This allowed for the creation of unusually high credit card spending limits.
The money launderers subsequently traveled to Macau and used the credit cards to purchase casino chips but would gamble only briefly before converting the chips back to cash – creating the appearance of legally obtained income in Macau and ultimately laundering all illegal gambling proceeds obtained via illicit activity.
According to the Prosecutors Office, the case uncovered a total of NT$278.3 billion (US$8.66 billion) in laundered funds handled by the various money launderers. Further investigation into the flow of funds through various accounts found that NT$33.1 billion (US$1.03 billion) had been transferred into Taiwan, with NT$258 million (US$8 million) ultimately seized from existing accounts, along with mobile phones, money counting machines and dozens of credit cards.
The group is accused of jointly violating Article 268 of the Criminal Code (intending to profit by providing gambling venues for gambling), Article 19, Paragraph 1 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act and Article 20, Paragraph 1 and Paragraph 3 of the Money Laundering Prevention Act
“The amount of money involved was enormous, seriously endangering Taiwan’s financial order,” authorities explained.
“The office will continue to combine police and investigative resources to strengthen the investigation and crackdown on cross-border crimes, severely punish all types of illicit financial flows, and will not allow criminal groups to evade legal sanctions through overseas operations, in order to ensure national financial order and the safety of citizens’ property.”
