A joint investigation by Australian media outlets The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and television show 60 Minutes aided by one of the biggest corporate data leaks in Australia details the dangerously close ties of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts with Asian organized crime and the Chinese Communist Party.
The investigation, details about which are to be released by the media outlets in a series of comprehensive articles, reveals how people close to China’s most powerful political figure – President Xi Jinping – as well as an Interpol fugitive were treated to special privileges by Crown at the company’s casino resorts in Melbourne and Perth. The company also allegedly used their help to lure high rollers from Mainland China to gamble at its properties.
The investigation used information obtained from the leaked tens of thousands of documents that disclosed details about Crown’s VIP operations. The company relies heavily on revenue from its Chinese VIP and VVIP (very, very important) customers, and its high roller business suffered a massive hit in the aftermath of the 2016 arrest of 19 staff members in Mainland China.
The Crown staffers were detained and then sentenced in China for promoting gambling on the territory of the country and organizing group trips for gamblers to the company’s two Australian casinos.
In an exclusive interview aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Jenny Jiang revealed inside information about Crown’s aggressive promotional activities in China, where casino gambling and its advertising are banned, and said that the practices deployed by the casino operator were illegal and endangered its employees.
Crown’s Alleged Links with Organized Crime
The investigation further details how a cousin of Chinese President Xi Jinping – Ming Chai – was among the passengers on a casino VIP players private jet that was searched by Australian federal agents on the Gold Coast on money laundering suspicions back in 2016.
The passengers were also probed by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) over concerns that some of the private jet’s occupants could be part of the Chinese government’s attempts to cement its influence in Australia.
The police search found out that Tom Zhou, an Interpol fugitive, and Communist Party influencer was treated to a number of benefits by Crown to help the company lure Chinese high rollers to its Australian properties.
For years, Zhou funneled gamblers from Mainland China via his “Chinatown junket”, who gambled away billions of dollars at Crown’s two casinos. Allegedly, some of the customers attracted by the Interpol fugitive were members of the triads, the powerful Asian organized crime gangs. For his services Zhou established “a privileged relationship” with Crown.
Aside from his alleged organized crime links, Zhou was a person of interest to Australian security organizations due to his activity as the head of Chinese Communist Party-aligned organizations based in Melbourne and established to project China’s influence in Australia.
The joint investigation and the data leak further show that Crown worked with consular staff when the operator needed to secure quick visas for high-roller gamblers.
In a 60 Minutes interview aired Sunday, former Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg said that Crown was well-connected in Australia’s political scene and that he personally was encouraged by Members of Parliament, including two Ministers, to help Crown speed up the passage of Chinese VIP players through Australian borders.
The junket operators Crown worked with were, too, offered facilitated service for Mainland China gamblers coming to the casino operator’s properties in Perth and Melbourne.
More information about Crown’s alleged ties with criminals and Chinese political influencers are to be revealed in the days to come through a series of articles published by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.
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