Two former business associates of disgraced Suncity Group founder Alvin Chau has reportedly been involved in an oil smuggling scheme that enabled North Korea to obtain crude oil and develop nuclear weapons.
According to a joint investigation by the Financial Times and the Royal United Services Institute, Gary To Ka-hin, CEO of Sun Gold Holdings, is an oil trader based in Hong Kong with links to the 14K triad, an organised crime syndicate active in Hong Kong and Macau.
A report from the media outlet published on 29 March said that To co-owned one of three foreign vessels allowed direct access to North Korea – the Unica – an oil tanker that made at least 23 sailings to the reclusive country since 2019.
Moroever, the report also mentioned another businessman named Sun Tit Fan, who was said to have been a middleman who sourced and paid for cargo on behalf of the North Korean regime.
Sun reportedly operated a number of companies behind the purchases of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of oil through the subsidiary of a North Korean bank that is subject to sanctions by authorities in the United States.
Sun is director of Sun International Automobile Company who owns a 30-percent stake in the firm.
He was said to be a grandson of a deceased agent sent by North Korea to Macau.
However, To denied any ties with the Unica oil tanker, saying that he had sold the firm in possession of the vessel in 2018 – a claim that contradicted a check by the Financial Times that pointed to the fact that he had remained in control of it at least until 2020.
