| The ‘human ATM’ who allegedly delivered bags of cash to high rolling Asian gamblers at The Star |
WHEN highrolling Asian gamblers needed cash at The Star, they turned to a Sydney man who once sent a mule to the casino carrying $500,000 cash in a bag.
The Australian Federal Police has won a court action against Baulkham Hills man Li Ming Hu for allegedly running an unregistered credit network.
The NSW Supreme Court found Mr Hu had not proved a legitimate source of the money and ordered him to surrender almost $1 million.
Mr Hu denied being the boss and financier of a multimillion-dollar operation that provided exorbitant amounts of money to be lent to tourists on gambling holidays.
But when the Australian Federal Police seized almost $1 million of the operation’s money, including $500,000 in cash in a black bag, after suspecting it was the proceeds of crime, Mr Hu launched action in the NSW Supreme Court to get it back.
It emerged in court that Mr Hu had access to $35 million and was named as the figurehead of an unregistered credit network that provided undeclared cash, on which he paid no tax.
The loans came at a cost of 12 per cent a year and Mr Hu lent one customer $1 million cash, while another clocked up an $800,000 debt that was repaid in cash over 10 months, the court heard. Justice Monika Schmidt also found Mr Hu lied while giving evidence and referred him to the DPP for possible criminal charges.
In his evidence, Mr Hu said he took bundles of $10,000 cash to the casino and Justice Schmidt told the court he appeared “to have loaned the money direct to gamblers at the casino”.
Under cross-examination, Mr Hu claimed he didn’t charge the borrowers any interest on smaller loans.
Mr Hu gave evidence that he was “so familiar” with cash he could measure if a bundle of currency contained $10,000 just by pressing fingers on it.
When he wasn’t dealing with gamblers directly, Mr Hu provided the larger sums of cash to a licensed “junket gambling operator” at The Star, Yixion Chen, who would deposit it into a casino account.
Mr Chen would arrange for Asian high rollers to come to the Star and the money would be provided to them through the casino’s legitimate account system, the court heard.
Mr Hu employed Yuan Te He to advise him on how to run the business because she had worked at The Star from 2004 to 2012, the court heard, and she gave evidence she told Mr Hu: “The casino will require a minimum of $500,000 to open a junket program.”
She said she also told him he needed sufficient cash ready if a junket client arrived on a weekend or at a time when banks where closed.
Justice Schmidt told the court it could be “gleaned” that Mr Hu’s operation was significant in size.
On June 3, 2014, $500,000 was transferred from the account of one of Mr Hu’s businesses to Mr Chen’s NAB account, court documents said. The AFP froze the money before it could be transferred to Mr Chen’s account at The Star.
Mr Hu directed an underling to go to his Panania office and collect $500,000 in a bag to deposit in the casino account — but AFP officers were waiting and seized the cash at the casino.
Top cop ordered Ibrahim Star ban
KINGS Cross identity Fadi Ibrahim has been banned from the Star casino on the orders of NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldos.
Mr Kaldas wrote to the casino in June ordering it to include Mr Ibrahim (pictured below with wife Shayda Bastani) on a list of “excluded persons”.
It also means Mr Ibrahim is banned from the precinct immediately around the casino, including its restaurants and nightclubs.
Mr Ibrahim, who is the brother of nightclub boss John, is yet to be told why he has been banned.
According to laws dealing with casino exclusions, police don’t have to provide reasons for a ban.
Mr Ibrahim, who survived being shot as he sat in his Lamborghini outside his North Shore home in 2009, launched legal action in the NSW Supreme Court last month to have the exclusion order overturned.
When contacted, Mr Ibrahim’s lawyer Nick Hanna said he was limited in what he could say because it was still unknown why Ibrahim was banned.
“My client, like any member of the community, should have the right to know why he is being banned,” Mr Hanna said.
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