Tinian Dynasty woes did not occur overnight, says former Sen. Cing
FORMER Tinian Sen. David M. Cing, one of the proponents of the Tinian casino initiative, said the troubles facing Tinian Dynasty Hotel and Casino did not occur overnight and are now “killing us here.”
Recently, a $75 million in civil fine was imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, on Tinian Dynasty.
In a statement released on June 3, 2015 in Washington, DC, FinCEN said it had assessed the $75 million civil money penalty against Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investments Ltd., which is doing business as Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino, “for willful and egregious violations of the Bank Secrecy Act” or BSA.
Cing said the Tinian leadership owe the people of the island an explanation.
It’s now up to the “Tinian Dynasty legal people to fight to reduce that [$75 million fine],” said Cing in a telephone interview on Sunday.
“I anticipate the amount to come down,” he added.
These developments, the former senator said, are “killing us.”
Tinian Dynasty management, its legal counsel or the Tinian mayor’s office had yet to respond to inquiries of this reporter regarding the $75 million fine.
Tinian Dynasty opened in 1998.
In related news, District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona has rescheduled the start of the jury trial against HKE which has been charged with suspicious activity and failure to file reports on currency transactions as required by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
At the conclusion of the motions hearing on Friday, Judge Manglona discussed pretrial matters regarding the jury trial.
Attorney Bruce Berline, representing HKE, said the trial may be set for June 30, 2015, with jury selection and the trial to start right after, instead of continuing with the jury selection tomorrow, Tuesday, and taking a break until the end of June or July.
The federal government represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marivic David and Russel Lorfing did not object.
Judge Manglona said the jury trial will be continued on June 30, 2015, and instructed the parties to file their proposed statement of the case by June 11, 2015.
In a media statement, FinCEN said Tinian Dynasty failed to develop and implement an anti-money laundering or AML program.
No member of Tinian Dynasty staff was delegated responsibility for day-to-day compliance with the e Bank Secrecy Act or BSA.
“The casino failed to develop and implement policies and procedures designed to ensure AML compliance, or to detect suspicious transactions; it also never conducted an independent test of its systems to ensure compliance. Further, casino personnel were not trained in BSA recordkeeping requirements or in identifying, monitoring, and reporting suspicious activity.”
According to FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery, “Tinian Dynasty didn’t just fail to file a few reports. The casino operated for years without an AML program in place. It failed to file thousands of [currency transaction reporters or] CTRs and its management willfully facilitated suspicious transactions and even provided helpful hints for skirting and avoiding the laws in the U.S. and overseas. Tinian Dynasty’s actions presented a real threat to the financial integrity of the region and the U.S. financial system.”
FinCEN said Tinian Dynasty accommodated patrons who desired to conduct financial transactions with large amounts of cash without the casino reporting the transactions.
During a criminal investigation, undercover agents, posing as customers, told casino staff that they planned to gamble large amounts of money and requested that the casino not report their transactions to the government, FinCEN said.
In another interaction, it added, the casino’s VIP manager assured an undercover agent, posing as a representative of a Russian businessman, that his client could bring large amounts of currency, and the casino would not file reports relating to these transactions.
FinCEN said instead of reporting the transactions as suspicious, Tinian Dynasty accommodated these requests.
“And, in some instances, casino employees provided detailed instructions on how these patrons could conduct transactions without being reported or attracting law enforcement scrutiny.”
FinCEN said Tinian Dynasty also willfully violated the requirement to file other currency transaction reports and suspicious activity reports.
“During the undercover investigation, agents conducted several currency transactions well above the CTR threshold, yet the casino failed to file required reports. During a 2013 search of Tinian Dynasty, law enforcement agents discovered a stack of more than 2,000 unfiled CTRs. When asked about these CTRs, the casino’s chief auditor said that he assumed that filing them was a low priority because nobody ever noticed that they were not being filed.”
FinCEN Director Shasky Calvery expressed her appreciation to the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Division and to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands for their contributions to the investigation and strong partnership with FinCEN.
FinCEN said its mission is to safeguard the financial system from illicit use and combat money laundering and promote national security through the collection, analysis, and dissemination of financial intelligence and strategic use of financial authorities.
On Sept. 22, 2014, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment against HKE.
The charges included conspiracy to cause a financial institution to fail to file a currency transactional report, failure to file a currency transactional report, failure to file a suspicious activity report and failure to maintain an effective Anti-Money-Laundering Program. The indictment also included a notice of forfeiture.
The superseding indictment dropped two other defendants, former Tinian Dynasty former casino manager Tim Blyth and former Tinian Dynasty VIP services manager George Que who agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.
