Hong Kong-listed Suncity Group Holdings Limited has announced that its chairman of the Board, Executive Director and controlling shareholder, Alvin Chau Cheok Wa, has indicated his intentions to resign from his positions in the group.
Suncity Group is the Hong Kong-listed arm of local junket operator Suncity Gaming Promotion Company Limited but it’s completely separate from its junket operations.
Macau police authorities announced yesterday that Chau along with 10 others had been arrested in an investigation on a crime syndicate accused of operating illegal gaming activities and money laundering.
The other 10 suspects of the case, either Macau or Hong Kong residents, are senior executives of a company, but PJ did not comment whether all of them are Suncity executives.
Chau and four others are currently being held in pre-trial detention after being formally charged by the Macau Public Prosecutions Office.
In a Hong Kong Stock Exchange announcement, Suncity Group says ‘so far as the board is aware’, apart from Chau ‘neither the company nor any of its subsidiaries nor any director, officer or staff of any member of the Group is under any investigation and/or charges in connection with the incident’.
‘As disclosed in the Interim Report, the Group is dependent on the financial support from Mr. Chau and his related companies. In the event that the Group losses the support of Mr. Chau for whatever reason, the financial position, business and operation of the Group will be adversely affected’
Today Suncity Group subsidiary Summit Ascent Holdings Limited, which is responsible for the operations of the Tigre de Cristal integrated resort in Russia also issued a similar statement indicating that Chau would resign his positions in the company as chairman and non-executive director.
The company also denied allegations that Tigre de Cristal in the Primorye Region had been involved in cross border gambling activities by sending officers to solicit customers in the People’s Republic of China for gambling, stating that none of the directors, officers or staff of any members of the Group has engaged in the solicitation for customers in the PRC.
