How Alvin Chau was brought down by Australia

On November 27, staff working for the most colourful man in international gambling were led out of his Macau office handcuffed and wearing black hoods. Access and manage your vacant residential land tax information.

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Last week, the director of operations at Sun Stud, David Grant, described allegations that Chau part-owned Sun Stud as a “long bow”. In September, corporate filings reveal that Chau offloaded his last Sun Stud holding to online casino Cheng via a British Virgin Islands company. Official sources not authorised to comment publicly say ACIC investigations into Cheng allege he is involved in “orchestrating large-scale money-laundering activity in Australia and the sourcing and distribution of heroin both in Hong Kong and overseas”.

But the accountant, who retired from PwC in 1995 and is paid a yearly partners’ fee by the giant consulting firm, appears to have contracted PwC to provide Suncity a corporate address and tax services. In 2017, ACIC’s chief Phelan informed his board of police and spy chiefs that it had listed Cheng as an “Australian priority organisation target”, a designation reserved for those posing the greatest organised crime threat to Australia. Anti-money-laundering agency Austrac, which also has a representative on the ACIC board, warned last year in a heavily redacted report that high-roller operations were also suspected of funding foreign interference operations. It’s headed by a former senior federal police officer, Mike Phelan, and is guided by board members who include AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess and the heads of state and territory policing agencies. ACIC exists to feed high-grade intelligence to state and federal agencies.

• It’s headed by a former senior federal police officer, Mike Phelan, and is guided by board members who include AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess and the heads of state and territory policing agencies.
• He conceded Cheng was still involved but insisted he was “squeaky clean”.
• It is not suggested that Brogan was personally involved in any wrongdoing or criminal activity, only that he is involved with Suncity.
• ACIC exists to feed high-grade intelligence to state and federal agencies.

Crime, casinos and communists

But the full story of Chau and his gambling junket operation, Suncity, is also a tale of financial and organised crime in Australia, and the work of a mostly hidden federal agency, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. Sydney’s The Star Entertainment casino firm was just as eager to woo Chau to access his contact list of Chinese high rollers. But in a statement, ACIC chief Phelan confirmed his agency was increasingly using its compulsory interrogation powers to disrupt criminal operations and had also jailed three unnamed individuals who had failed to answer questions at secret hearings. Sources have confirmed that during this time, ACIC was able to develop an unprecedented overview of Suncity’s operations, including how it had helped suspected Chinese criminals move huge sums to and from Australia.

Chau’s Australian business flourished between 2012 and 2019, helping to earn him enough capital to finance action movies in Hong Kong and major casino projects in Russia and Asia. Use this portal to access and manage your land tax information. But having been effectively called out as an organised crime enabler in Australia, the clock was ticking on Chau.