The 12th defendant in the trial of 21 people linked to collapsed Macau junket operator Suncity Group told the court on Wednesday that he and other staff had assisted a customer in opening an account with online gaming platform Universal e-City.
However, he denied participating in telephone betting activities and insisted that he did not have the authority to operate the accounts of Universal e-City for online or proxy betting.
Vincent Loi is accused of manipulating funds in the Universal e-City account. At the time of his arrest he was working as the Deputy Director of Business Developments for the Suncity Group, where his main business was customer service, including helping guests book dining and hotel rooms.
“Universal e-City” is a Philippine proxy betting company that was originally owned by Suncity Group before being sold to a businessman named Yang. The prosecution pointed out that Universal e-City was not ostensibly part of the Suncity Group but that Universal e-City customer funds could be transferred into Suncity Group customer accounts.
In court, Loi pointed out that nobody at Suncity could access the accounts of their clients.
“Only the customer was eligible to access it, and the customer did not need to account for the operation of the funds with the business development department. They only needed to verify the information with the cage department to operate.”
However, the indictment mentioned that Loi had assisted a customer in opening an account with Universal e-City.
He explained, “Because there was a Suncity customer who was interested in Universal e-City, but he didn’t have the means to open an account, he asked me to help him, so I contacted my colleagues at Suncity Manila and asked for their help because Universal e-City is a Manila-based company.
“From my point of view, by helping this customer open an account with Universal e-City, I was actually helping a Suncity customer with something. My job was to help customers with their problems, the same as booking rooms and restaurants.”
The case has been in the lower court for nine days, with the nine defendants to have appeared in court having now finished their defense. They will enter the witness testimony stage Thursday afternoon.
