More on the Chinese missing millions that may have been laundered through Las Vegas
There are fresh allegations that some of the money that went missing from a Chinese company once listed on the Nasdaq may have been laundered through slot machines in Las Vegas casinos.
As we reported in December, medical equipment maker China Medical Technologies was listed on the Nasdaq from 2005 until February last year, and had the bluest of blue-chip advisers, underwriters, investors and creditors. It was wound up last July after missing interest payments. According to court filings since our last report, the company’s liquidators now claim that $670 million of cash the company raised in its 2005 IPO and subsequent equity and bond sales cannot be located, upping their estimate from a previous $400 million.
In a December 31 filing with the New York Southern District Bankruptcy Court, the Hong-Kong based liquidation firm, Borrelli Walsh, alleged that instead of being invested in China Medical, hundreds of millions of dollars that the company raised were “funneled to Wu [Xiaodong, its CEO] and his associates, including [Jenny] Bi [Xiaoqiong, his wife].” According to the filing, Wu gave Bi over $26 million between 2005-2010.
According to information that two of China Medical’s creditors shared with Quartz—and which they say they also got from the liquidators—Bi put $62 million through slot machines at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas between 2008 and 2012. Another source separately confirmed that the casino’s records do show Bi’s $62 million slot machine spend in that time period. A spokesman for the liquidation firm declined to confirm this, as did a spokesperson for Bellagio. (In case the figure seems incredible, it’s worth noting that Bellagio does have $1,000-a-spin slot machines.)...MORE
