Yunlin prosecutors yesterday indicted 10 people for laundering more than NT$33 billion (US$1.03 billion) in illicit gambling gains through casinos in Macau.
The probe began in November last year after the Criminal Investigation Bureau received information about a criminal group recruiting money mules to launder funds overseas, the Yunlin District Prosecutors' Office said in a statement.
Several raids were carried out in Taichung, Taipei and New Taipei City, during which nearly two dozen people were arrested, the office said.
Photo courtesy of the Yunlin District Prosecutors' Office
The primary suspects, a 37-year-old man surnamed Chen (陳) and a 36-year-old man surnamed Lin (林), remain at large and are wanted on a 20-year arrest warrant, it said.
Investigators found that Chen and Lin, who operated an online gambling network, worked with two people surnamed Liao (廖) and Chou (周) to devise a specialized money-laundering scheme that funneled illicit gains through money mules' credit card accounts as prepayments, boosting their spending limits, prosecutors said.
The mules were asked to travel to Macau and use the credit cards at local casinos, which have large cash reserves and lenient oversight of customer transactions, to exchange funds for chips, pretend to gamble and later convert the chips back into legal currency in Macau, they said.
The mules earned not only higher credit limits, but also commissions of 3 to 4.5 percent for assisting in the laundering, prosecutors said.
Investigators traced more than NT$278 million processed by the mules, while NT$33 billion in total flowed through the scheme’s accounts, they said.
Prosecutors said they completed the investigation yesterday and filed charges against Chen, Lin, Liao and seven others under the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法) and other related legislation.
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