An Australian “high roller” gambler suspected of laundering $860 million through Australian casinos was apprehended in British Columbia, Canada.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that Dan Bui Shun Jin, 55, was a temporal resident at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, British Columbia, when Canadian authorities conducted a joint strategic operation and swooped the building.
“Dan Bui Shun Jin is alleged to be an international money launderer with current active investigations on money laundering originating from Australia, United States, Macau and Singapore,” announced the RCMP in a statement on Wednesday.
The United States had also previously issued an arrest warrant for Jin due to an alleged fraud in Nevada worth $1.4 million.
“The United States have issued a warrant for JIN’s arrest for Fraud over $1.4 million from the state of Nevada. JIN’s alleged to be a high roller, suspected of laundering $855 million dollars through Australian casinos,” said the statement.
The RCMP said Jin was arrested on May 25 after the surveillance operation at the River Rock Casino and a sum of $C75,000 was seized.
“A search warrant executed on Jin’s hotel room in the casino provided investigators with documents of his involvement in money laundering and his recent money movement scheme through Vancouver International Airport”, the RCMP said.
“The Vancouver airport money movement scheme allegedly involved a female courier who brought $25,000 cash from Las Vegas to Richmond,” said the RCMP. “The female was directed to pick up bulk cash from an unidentified male in a parking lot in Las Vegas, then tasked with delivering that bulk cash to Jin at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, British Columbia.”
The Immigration and Refugee Board issued a deportation order for Jin on June 5. He is currently being held in custody until he can be removed from Canada.
Jin’s arrest comes as British Columbia’s Attorney General David Eby campaigns for support in protecting the province against the money laundering.
“It's literally hundreds of millions of dollars have gone through B.C. casinos that are suspicious cash transactions,” Eby told the Canada’s Standing Committee on Finance on March 27. “Not all of them necessarily involving the proceeds of crime, but certainly large-scale money laundering was taking place.”
However, since the birth of online casinos, more gamblers are discovering easier ways to win big online—with sites like online-casino-canada.ca/ offering free casino games that allow players to become familiar with casino games without losing any real cash. This not only increases one’s chances of winning but keeps one away from making silly “mistakes”—just like the story of two Edmonton men who paid about 800 per cent more than they should have for a short ride to a Las Vegas.
Las Vegas local Steve Kaye had just left work on Friday when the two guys flagged down his car at a red light near the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Kaye said he told the pair he wasn’t their Uber driver, but before he knew it, the men were already seated comfortably in his back seat.
“I said a few times, ‘Hey, listen, I’m not an Uber.’ They said, ‘How about $US75?’ I said, ‘I’ll drive you wherever you want,’” Kaye told CTV Edmonton on Monday. “Once they started talking I was like, ‘Ah, they’re Canadian. It’s safe. We’re good.’”
The Edmontonians who identified themselves as Bruce and Craig, chatted to Kaye about hockey during the short four-kilometre journey to Caesars Palace that should have cost about $8.50, if they had used a real Uber.
“I’m just waiting on the Prime Minister to call, because pretty much everybody else in Canada has called me at this point,” Kaye said who received an invite to an Edmonton Oilers game. “Now I want to visit. These guys were awesome.”
