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Zhou Zhuohua was indicted on nearly 300 charges.
Zhou Zhuohua, the founder of Sun City Group nicknamed “Xi Mi Hua”, was charged with 289 counts for illegal gambling. Operating gambling and fraud, a total of 18 years in prison.
The case of Zhou Zhuohua originated from the investigation and handling of the suspected cross-border gambling crime in Wenzhou, Zhejiang in November 2021, and the arrest was approved by the Macau Procuratorate. The SAR Judicial Police immediately took Zhou Zhuohua away for investigation and handed over to the Procuratorate for prosecution.
The arrest took place at a time when Macau was consulting on the revision of the Gaming Law and was preparing to re-bid for casino licenses. It was also the 11th revision of the Criminal Law in mainland China, and it was not long after the crime of “organizing and participating in foreign and overseas gambling” was sentenced.
The indictment stated that from March 2013 to March 2021, the illegal group headed by Zhou operated “gambling bottoms” in the casinos of six gaming companies, that is, privately using leverage to increase the amount of gambling, and the gambling amount reached more than 800 billion Hong Kong dollars. Earning at least 21.5 billion yuan of illegitimate interests, resulting in the Macau SAR not collecting 8.26 billion yuan in gaming taxes, the government and a number of gaming companies have filed civil damages claims.
Zhou Zhuohua and his kingdom of VIP rooms
Zhou Zhuohua was born in Macau on May 30, 1974. According to reports, he, like many Macau residents born at the same time, holds Portuguese citizenship.
According to a number of Chinese media reports in Hong Kong, Macau and other places, Zhou Zhuohua got involved in the so-called “snacking” lending intermediaries of casinos in 1994, and “peddled” lending services on the streets around the casinos.
“Pazai” refers to a person who cheers up gamblers and asks for tips from winning gamblers in a casino. They are different from “Jackbox Operators”, who are engaged in soliciting customers for casinos, so as to share dividends with casinos. Junket Operator was legalized in 2008 as a regulated junket operator.
As early as 1998, Zhou Zhuohua obtained the online gaming license in the Philippines. In 2007, he was recruited by a hotel in Macau to open a casino VIP room and establish his Suncity Group. “Macau Daily” pointed out that Suncity Group has earned a lot of money from the VIP room business. Since 2011, it has expanded its businesses such as movies, catering, finance, real estate, auction houses, automobiles, luxury goods, tourism and entertainment, and concerts. Invested in the construction of comprehensive tourism and entertainment resorts in the Philippines, Vietnam and other places, and expanded its business to Russia through acquisitions.
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Suncity Group rose to prominence by operating VIP rooms in casinos.
Zhou Zhuohua participated in high-profile pro-Beijing activities through the “Macau Inspirational Youth Association” as the president, such as visiting the Mao Zedong Photo Exhibition and National Security Education Exhibition co-organized by the Liaison Office of the Central Government of China in Macau (Macau Liaison Office) and the Macau SAR Government Wait.
However, in 2020, there were rumors on the Internet that Zhou Zhuohua supported “Hong Kong independence” and even assisted the United States and Taiwan in transferring funds to Hong Kong underworld gangs in order to escalate anti-government demonstrations into “black violence.” Zhou Zhuohua published a video denial on the Suncity Group website on July 13, calling the rumor “extremely absurd”.
After Zhou Zhuohua was wanted by the police in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, the ultra-left website in Shanghai issued an article saying: “Those gangsters who want to use ‘patriotism’ to whitewash themselves should re-examine this era.
Ximihua Case: From Wenzhou, Zhejiang to Macau
On July 8, 2019, the “Economic Information Daily” under China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that Zhou Zhuohua used online gambling platforms in the Philippines and Cambodia to solicit mainland Chinese gamblers to participate in overseas gambling remotely. The report described him as the “New Gambling King of Asia” and said, “The annual betting volume of Suncity’s online gambling in the mainland is more than one trillion yuan, which is equivalent to nearly twice the annual revenue of China’s lottery.”
He responded at the time that it was “seriously inaccurate” and reserved the right to pursue legal responsibility.
On November 26, 2021, the Public Security Bureau of Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province issued a report on the case, announcing that it had obtained the approval of the local procuratorate to arrest Zhou Zhuohua, a Macau resident, accusing him of “committing the crime of opening a casino in China” and “urging him to surrender as soon as possible and fight for the crime.” Leniency”.
Wenzhou police stated that since 2007, Zhou Zhuohua has developed personnel in mainland China as shareholder-level agents and gambling agents, organized Chinese citizens to gamble in overseas casinos contracted by him, and participated in cross-border online gambling activities; established asset management companies in China, Provide gamblers with services in exchange for gambling chips, help recover gambling debts, and assist customers in cross-border redemption of funds; use illegal channels such as underground banks to provide fund settlement services for gamblers.
According to the local police, as of July 2020, the cross-border gambling criminal group headed by him has developed a total of 199 shareholder-level agents, more than 12,000 gambling agents, and more than 80,000 gambler members in mainland China. A woman named Zhang Ningning was listed as one of the backbone. According to Hong Kong media reports, she is a Hong Kong resident.
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In his final statement, Chau Cheuk Wah emphasized that his business has made great economic contributions to Macau.
The day after the announcement of the case, the Macau judicial police took Zhou Zhuohua away for investigation. The SAR government issued a statement confirming that it took action “based on the evidence obtained in previous criminal investigations” after “received a notification from the relevant mainland authorities”.
There is no agreement on mutual judicial assistance in criminal matters between Macau and mainland China, and the Macau media also questioned why the authorities arrested Zhou Zhuohua. The judiciary responded that the Australian side had filed a case for investigation based on intelligence as early as August 2019, and countered that it had not grasped the situation reported by the Wenzhou police.
The police also stated that the 11 suspects, including the “47-year-old male businessman surnamed Zhou from Macau”, “all admitted to setting up gambling platforms and related criminal activities”, but refused to cooperate with the investigation of other cases.
Lin Chang, the president and editor-in-chief of the well-known leftist newspaper “Xinhua Australia News” in Macau, later described in his column that the arrest of Zhou Zhuohua by the Macau police was “an invisible ‘interregional criminal judicial assistance’ in the form of ‘tacit understanding'”, and urged The Macao SAR government restarted the legislative work of the “Interregional Criminal Judicial Assistance Law” as soon as possible. The bill was originally submitted to the Macau Legislative Assembly for consideration, but the SAR government voluntarily withdrew it in June 2016.
On October 20, 2022, Cen Haohui, President of the Court of Final Appeal of the Macao Special Administrative Region, delivered the speech at the opening ceremony of the judicial year. He put forward the same opinion as the “Xinhua Australia News”, and said that inter-regional criminal judicial assistance “should not be absent for a long time.”
On December 1, 2021, Suncity Group, which is listed in Hong Kong, issued an announcement announcing Zhou Zhuohua’s resignation as chairman of the group’s board of directors.
On September 2, 2022, the Macao SAR Primary Court opened a court session to hear “criminal cases involving Suncity Group crimes”, involving a total of 21 defendants including Zhou Zhuohua and Zhang Ningning. Zhou Zhuohua, as the “first suspect”, faces 289 charges, including the crime of “illegal gambling operation”, “money laundering” crime, “aggravated money laundering” crime, “criminal group” crime, and “illegal gambling operation in a licensed place” crime , and the crime of “quite huge amount of fraud”.
For this reason, the court issued a press release detailing the content of the charges, which was described by the Macau media as a rare move.
At the same time, the SAR Procuratorate, on behalf of the SAR government and four gaming companies – Wynn Resort, Macau Entertainment Integrated Resort, MGM Grand Paradise and Venetian – filed a “joint and several liability” civil claim against Zhou Zhuohua and others. Suncity operates VIP rooms in the casinos of these four gaming companies.
Among them, the Macao Special Administrative Region government claimed 8.26 billion Hong Kong dollars, or separately settled the amount of under-collected gaming taxes; the US-owned Wynn Resort claimed 795 million patacas; 100 million Hong Kong dollars; the Venetian, a subsidiary of the Sands Group, claimed 300 million Hong Kong dollars. The amount claimed by MGM Grand Paradise is “to be clarified and settled at a later date.”
Combined, the SAR government and the three gaming companies have claimed a total of 9.797 billion patacas (1.218 billion U.S. dollars; 8.2 billion yuan; 9.512 billion Hong Kong dollars).
The Procuratorate did not further explain the grounds for the civil claim, but according to Macau media reports, in the stage of closing the case in November 2022, in addition to the four gaming companies that were claimed by the Procuratorate on behalf of them, Hong Kong businessman Lui Che Woo’s Galaxy Entertainment also had lawyers appearing in court. The lawyers representing the gaming companies all agreed with the procuratorate’s claim position.
While the Macau court trial was in progress, the Wenzhou Intermediate Court pronounced judgment on 35 people including Zhang Ningning for the crime of opening casinos and illegal business operations on September 30. Among them, Zhang Ningning was punished for several crimes and sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine of 800,000 yuan. The Wenzhou Intermediate People’s Court ruled that Zhang Ningning and others committed the crime under the instigation of Zhou Zhuohua.
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“Betting the floor” involves betting both at the table and outside.
To a considerable extent, the trial process of the Macau Junior Court revolved around whether Suncity Group participated in the so-called “bottom betting” activities. The general idea is that gamblers place bets at the gaming table and at the same time, use peripheral gambling to multiply several times with leverage. Bet against others. Based on this, the Judiciary Police and the Procuratorate prosecuted Zhou Zhuohua for the crime of “illegally operating gambling in a licensed place”.
The prosecution accused Zhou Zhuohua of involving more than 220 betting records, 14 of which he gave instructions. Evidence shows that the betting group is controlled by Zhou Zhuohua for defense, but the lawyer denies that Suncity is involved.
According to the judiciary, from 2013 to 2021, Sun City’s gambling turnover (turnover) amounted to more than 800 billion patacas, and illegal profits reached more than 21 billion patacas.
In his final statement to the court, Zhou Zhuohua himself “felt helpless and puzzled” by the multiple charges, emphasizing that Suncity Group’s more than 4,000 employees have been operating in Macau for more than ten years and have created hundreds of billions of patacas for Macau. Gambling earnings.