Normandie Casino in Gardena, California agreed on Friday to plead guilty to violating the federal Bank Secrecy Act and failing to report large transactions of money that occurred in 2013 to federal authorities.
Under its plea agreement with prosecutors, the gambling venue will have to pay $1 million in federal fines and to forfeit the amount of $1.4 million, which it received in 2013 after it had failed to submit Currency Transaction Reports as required by federal laws.
Normandie Casino officials also admitted that the anti-money laundering measures at the venue have been quite poor. Under federal laws, gambling halls are required to record important personal information about customers that cash out winnings of more than $10,000.
It seems that casino workers have helped wealthy players by breaking up larger earnings into smaller amounts or by writing “independent gaming promoters” on reports to the U.S. Treasury rather than the said players’ actual names.
Normandie Casino was also accused of failing to monitor properly large cash transactions that could have been considered attempts for money laundering. For instance, the venue did not record the necessary information about a gambling customer who collected more than $1 million in winnings within the span of six weeks.
Commenting on the case, Mark Werksman, attorney for the casino, said that it has cooperated with investigators in order for it to be solved quickly and in a positive manner and for the casino to be able to keep on running its business.
Following the Friday announcement about the plea agreement, U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker said that the United States has a wide variety of anti-money laundering measures for preventing criminal figures from using the country’s financial system to launder huge amounts of money. And according to the attorney, gambling venues that do not apply those measures are vulnerable to such criminal figures and their illegal intentions.
Mr. Werksman said that the Friday plea agreement will be officially entered in court later in 2016. He also revealed that no owners or individual managing partners have faced charges or jail time throughout the case.
Normandie Casino was established back in the 1940s and is one of the oldest gaming facilities in Southern California.
