High roller laundered millions brought in duffel bags to California casino, feds say
A California casino agreed to pay $500,000 for not alerting federal authorities about a “high roller” who brought in millions in cash to use in games of baccarat.
Federal regulators believe the casino violated anti-money laundering provisions in the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a statement from the Department of Justice last week. They left the “high roller” unnamed, but said he was a Chinese national who gambled at The Bicycle Hotel and Casino in Bell Gardens around 100 times over the course of eight months in 2016.
Bell Gardens is a city about 10 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Authorities said the high roller would play games of high-limit baccarat, sometimes in marathon sessions, with “huge sums of cash” that he sometimes transported in and out of the casino in a duffel bag. He also relied on an assistant to conduct over $100 million in “cash-in or cash-out” transactions for him, the statement said.
Casinos are required to file a currency transaction report and a suspicious activity report with the Department of the Treasury when patrons buy over $10,000 in chips using cash, MarketWatch reported.
The Bicycle acknowledged that it improperly filed currency transaction reports under the assistant’s name from at least Jan. 7, 2016 to July 27, 2016, the DOJ statement said. Instead, the business should have filed those reports under the high roller’s name. The Bicycle also did not file any suspicious activity reports during that time.
The casino entered a non-prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice last week and agreed to pay the federal government $500,000, which “represents the revenue The Bicycle made from the high roller,” the DOJ statement said.
The Bicycle is also required to follow additional review and reporting requirements to ensure it adheres to the Bank Secrecy Act, including a third-party audit and regular reporting to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the statement said.
The casino’s attorney, Johnny L. Griffin III, told MarketWatch that the company acknowledged its mistakes and is committed to “ensuring that all of its compliance and reporting programs are strictly followed and updated as the laws and regulations require.”
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