Image source: Sun City Group's official WeChat public account
According to media reports, "Macau's little gambler" and founder of The Macau Sun City Group, Zhou Zhuohua, was charged with nearly 300 crimes including the creation and directing of criminal groups, involving illegal betting amounts of more than HK$800 billion (about 640 billion yuan).
Zhou Zhuohua, who has been in custody pending trial since his arrest in November last year, was formally prosecuted by the procuratorate last month after completing the investigation of the case and opening his trial on September 2 this year. According to the indictment, the illegal gambling group led by Zhou Zhuohua used the Sun City VIP Club to engage in illegal activities of "gambling on the bottom side" to induce customers to "gamble on the bottom side", thereby deceiving the gambling enterprises, and concealing the income of the VIP club and the actual bet amount of gamblers, causing losses to the six major bo enterprises and making the SAR government collect less gambling taxes, so that the SAR government was charged with 229 counts of "illegal gambling in licensed places", as well as 54 counts of "quite huge fraud crimes" and 3 "quite huge fraud crimes" attempted.
At the same time, Zhou Zhuohua was accused of "illegally operating gambling" and "aggravating the crime of laundering black money" by using Macao as a base to open VIP halls in the Philippines, Vietnam and other places through the Sun City Group, broadcast gambling activities in local casinos, attract Macao and mainland residents to illegal gambling on the phone and online, and transfer illegal gains through underground money banks and other means.
Some media calculated that 680 billion yuan in cash, the weight reached 7820 tons. If 1.4 billion people were to be divided equally, each person would receive about 485.7 yuan.
According to the Macao Procuratorate's earlier statement, there are sufficient indications that the gang members are suspected of participating in a criminal group, leading a criminal group, laundering black money, and illegally operating gambling. If all four counts are convicted, the maximum sentence is 33 years.
Time Finance contacted Sun City Group regarding the progress of the incident and its impact, but as of press time, there was no reply.
Macau tycoon
Zhou Zhuohua, known as washing rice. The casino tycoon from "Stacked Code Boy" runs across the capital circle and entertainment circle of Hong Kong and Macao. Originally named Zhou Zhuohua, he engaged in "pickpocketing" work in the casino in his early years, that is, the salesman responsible for soliciting customers. Later, he was regarded by Yin Guoju (flower name "Broken Tooth Pon"),the "godfather" of the Macau gang, and accepted him as a subordinate, and also gave him a flower name, that is, washed rice.
It is worth mentioning that Zhou Zhuohua is most well known in Hong Kong and Macao is his original partner Chen Huiling and the "little third" Liu Bili's struggle. They had competed to have children, and finally Zhou Zhuohua gave Liu Bili a sky-high break-up fee of HK$300 million and let her go to the UK with 4 children born in 5 years.
Zhou Zhuohua's rise is due to his vision of internet opportunities, winning online gambling licenses in the Philippines and Cambodia, and launching the Sun City online platform. This network platform, known as "the world's top and Asia's largest", uses high-definition cameras to transmit the gambling table screen in real time, and the on-site licensing situation is unobstructed, and customers watch the network live broadcast and bet synchronously.
As early as 2019, the Economic Reference Reported that the Philippine and Cambodian Sun City online gambling platforms (hereinafter referred to as the "Sun City Internet Gambling Platform" controlled by the "new Asian gambling king" Zhou Zhuohua (nicknamed WashMihua) have casinos and online servers located overseas, and gamblers are mainly concentrated in Chinese mainland. Chinese gamblers use video to bet remotely, win or lose in a moment, and can participate in overseas gambling without leaving home.
Sun City online gambling in the mainland bets more than one trillion yuan a year, equivalent to nearly twice the annual revenue of China's lottery, and its annual profit is as high as tens of billions of yuan, and these funds flow overseas through underground money banks.
It is worth noting that on the same day that the report was issued, Sun City Group released a clarification statement from Sun City Gaming Intermediary One Person Co., Ltd. on the company's WeChat public account. However, judging from the stock price reaction, the above statement did not have much effect. At that time, Sun City Group's stock price fell by 3.68% on the day and fell again by 19.67% on July 9.
checked
According to the news of "Ping An Wenzhou" on November 26, 2021, in July 2020, the Public Security Bureau of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, opened a case against Zhang Ningning and others for opening a casino in accordance with the law. The criminal suspect, Zhou Zhuohua, male, is a resident of Macao, China, a shareholder and director of Suncity Gaming Intermediaries Co., Ltd.
It was found that since 2007, Zhou Zhuohua has contracted gambling halls in casinos in Macau and other places, and opened online gambling platforms in the Philippines and other places in 2016. In order to obtain illegal benefits, Zhou Zhuohua developed domestic personnel as shareholder-level agents and gambling agents, and organized Chinese citizens to gamble in overseas gambling halls contracted by him and participate in cross-border online gambling activities by means of high credit extension, promotion of gambling business, provision of vehicle transportation and technical support, etc. Establish an asset management company in China to provide services for gamblers to exchange assets for gambling chips, help collect gambling debts, and assist customers in cross-border fund redemption; Using illegal channels such as underground money banks to provide capital settlement services for gamblers, a cross-border gambling criminal group with Zhou Zhuohua as the head and Zhang Ningning as the backbone, fixed personnel, clear hierarchy and a large number of people has gradually formed. As of July 2020, the cross-border gambling crime group headed by Zhou Zhuohua had developed a total of 199 shareholder-level agents, more than 12,000 gambling agents, and more than 80,000 gambling members in China, involving a particularly huge amount of money, which seriously hindered the social management order of the mainland.
In November 2021, the Wenzhou Municipal Procuratorate issued an arrest warrant for Zhou Zhuohua on suspicion of establishing a cross-border gambling criminal group. It has been half a year since Chow was detained and interrogated by the Macau police on November 27 of the same year and transferred to prison on November 29. In addition to Zhou Zhuohua, four other suspects were detained in accordance with the law.
The Procuratorate of the Macao Special Administrative Region further disclosed some of its findings. On November 29, 2021, the Macao Procuratorate released the news of the case "Gang suspected of illegal gambling and money laundering taken compulsory measures": the police detected a case suspected of using the Internet for illegal gambling and money laundering, and eleven people involved in the case, led by the suspect surnamed Zhou, were transferred to the procuratorate for investigation.
According to public information from the Macao Procuratorate, Zhou and other gangs are suspected of using Macao as a base to set up an illegal online live betting platform in the Philippines, attracting mainland residents to carry out huge amounts of illegal online gambling as the main source of customers through "live broadcast scenes", and using local corporate accounts to transfer illegal gains through underground money banks.
After Chow's arrest, the husband of another Macau gaming intermediary, Deok Jin Group, and the husband of star An Yixuan, was also arrested by the Macau SAR police on 28 January 2022. At 10:00 a.m. on January 30, the Judicial Police of the Macao Special Administrative Region held a press conference to announce that in November 2021, the authorities had detected a case of illegal gambling, criminal syndicates and money laundering, and during the follow-up investigation, it was found that a 49-year-old suspect surnamed Chen and a suspect surnamed Cai were "still" suspected of engaging in related criminal activities, especially illegal online gambling and "gambling bottom"(referring to the gambler's gambling on the table, he increased the amount of gambling under the table by leverage).
Listed companies are involved
It has held three listed companies, namely Sun City Group, Sun City International and Kaisheng Holdings. Before being arrested, Hemihua had already transferred all the shares of Sun City International, but when he was arrested, he still held shares in two listed companies, Sun City Group and Kaisheng Holdings, and occupied the "big head".
Sun City Group is the core asset of Zhou Zhuohua. In 2007, Zhou Zhuohua founded Sun City Group (01383. HK), since then, the company has developed into the largest gaming intermediary in Macau, covering a variety of businesses such as gaming, finance and entertainment, with up to 1,000 employees.
On the evening of 29 November 2021, Suncity Group announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that Zhou Zhuohua had expressed its intention to resign as chairman of the board of directors and executive director of the company. Kaisheng Holdings, a non-wholly-owned subsidiary of Sun City Group, also issued an announcement in response to the investigation of Zhou Zhuohua.
Among them, Sun City Group announced that the board of directors noted the report, first, the Wenzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate approved the arrest of Zhou Zhuohua (chairman of the board of directors, executive director and controlling shareholder of the company) on November 26, 2021, which alleged that Zhou Zhuohua was involved in illegal cross-border gambling activities; Second, on November 27, 2021, the Macao Judicial Police arrested and detained Zhou Zhuohua, and alleged that Zhou Zhuohua was involved in illegal gambling; Third, the integrated entertainment resort called Tigrede Crystal (located in the integrated entertainment district of the coastal region of the Russian Federation, whose 77.5% controlling stake is indirectly held by KaiSheng Holdings) sends staff to solicit guests for its gaming business, thus involving illegal cross-border gambling activities.
The announcement also said that Sun City Group relies on the financial support of Zhou Zhuohua and its affiliates. Once the Group loses the support of Chow Chung Wah for any reason, the Group's financial condition, business and operations will be negatively affected.
Referring to allegations that Crystal Tiger Palace was involved in cross-border gambling activities, the Board of Directors of Sun City Group stated that the allegations were untrue and that no directors, officers or employees of any of the group's member companies had solicited guests for Crystal Tiger Palace's gaming business in China.
The Board of Directors of Kaisheng Holdings also announced that the allegations were false and that no director, officer or employee of any member of the Group had solicited guests in China for the gaming business of Crystal Tiger Palace.
At the same time, Sun City Group and Kaisheng Holdings suspended trading for a short time on November 29, and Sun International closed down 37.21% on November 29.
Time Financial Reporter noted that the 2022 financial report showed that the total revenue of Sun City Group's continuing operations increased by 87% to about HK$340 million; the gross profit of continuing operations increased by 232% to about HK$90.11 million; The Company's equity holders lost approximately HK$258 million during the year in 2021. However, in 2020, the profit attributable to the company's equity holders for the year was approximately HK$885 million.
According to the latest data, the market value of Sun City Group is HK$373 million, and the market value of Kaisheng Holdings is HK$203 million. (Beijing time finance and economics Xiang Yu)