Another great China crime story features a potent mix of Big Crime, Big Business and Big Politics. And a genuine, honest-to-God bond villain.
Born Feb. 16, 1968, Lian, a Hong Kong businessman and former gang member, made his first fortune working at casinos and smuggling. Later, he began operating the Neptune Cruises casino in his family's name. He controls Neptunus, a Hong Kong-listed bio-tech company, and is known as "the king of gambling on the high seas" due in part to his extensive connections with senior government officials as well as underworld organizations.
Anyway: here’s the nexus between illegal gambling junkets from the mainland, underground banking and money laundering.
"Zheng (Shaodong) is a senior official in the mainland's public security system, leading crackdowns on gambling and illegal private banks. I bribed him in exchange for protection," said Lian in his confession. He said that most of the gamblers who go to his casinos in Hong Kong and Macao are from the Chinese mainland, and since their gambling winnings could be ruled illegal, he is forced to deal with mainland police.
I would be quite surprised if Sheldon Adelman’s local casino interests were not making use of similar services. If this were the case, Beijing might have had an interesting relationship with President Romney.
Anyway, this concerns the case of Huang Guangyu, whose white goods empire once made him China’s richest man but who went down for 14 years inn 2010 for money laundering. nNot that it’s cramped his style. Last I heard, a venture capital vehicle controlled by him was trying to buy the Ark Royal, to turn into a floating casino. via.
This link has sea and China in it, but aside from that it's not relevant to the top post.
News to me: Chinese forces - PAP not PLAN - are patrolling the Mekong River, in joint operations with Thai, Burmese and Laotian forces. Apparently they've got a lovely new bit of kit:
http://china-defense.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/finally-purposely-design-and-build.html
Which reminded me of this bit of kit - just right for the multinational patrolling of otherwise lawless rivers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect-class_gunboat
Clearly, they've learned lessons from us. Not sure if they were the right ones, though.
Posted by: Chris Williams | March 01, 2013 at 12:41 PM