Marina Bay Sands Hires Law Firm to Investigate Transfers
Marina Bay Sands staff payments to third parties are under scrutiny for more than $1 billion. Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands casino resort in Singapore has retained a renowned law firm to look at gamblers' money deals.
Davinder Singh Chambers LLC, a specialist in dispute settlement and international arbitration, was hired by Sands China, a casino company, after Singapore police conducted a survey of third-party money transfers at the casino resort. The law firm will review casino management activities at Marina Bay Sands about compliance with anti-money laundering (AML).
Police Sample in the Casino
The Singapore police sample contributes to the woes of the casino resort which is now the subject of scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), the latter being especially involved in alleged AML breaches with respect to the management of VIP accounts and junket operations.
Last year, Wang Xi, a casino patron at Marina Bay Sands filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that $6.5 million was moved from his account to other gamblers without his permission. The case was settled out of court in June when the casino decided to refund the sum in full, though the sides refused to accept guilt.
CRA Internal Investigation
Marina Bay Sands released a statement about the litigation saying it reviewed all issues promptly and thoroughly, and its investigative audit found that no money had been moved against the customer's interest, but the lawsuit compelled the Casino Regulatory Authority (CRA) in Singapore to launch a review of the existing casino procedures related to money from third parties.
Transactions from 2013 to 2017 were extensively reviewed by the law firm Hogan Lovells, who pointed out that casino workers had not necessarily met regulatory requirements, as there were cases where payment records were carried out on pre-signed or photocopied authorisation documents, as well as cases where original paperwork was lost.
During the era, the casino workers used more than 3,000 permission letters worth around $1.4 billion to approve transfers of funds from customers to third parties. Much of these transactions is made by junket operators, third-party firms that offer accommodation, housing and gambling credit to high-rollers.
The Singapore regulator concluded the review without finding any violations of AML criteria and gave Marina Bay Sands advice to improve their protection measures. CRA released a statement expressing its determination to continue tracking the success of casino s initiatives closely.
Representative Davinder Singh Chambers refused to comment on the issue when the Singapore police force said it was improper to discuss an pending inquiry.
