Unemployment Benefit Claimant Spends $15m At SkyCity Casino

In 1993, Van Thanh Tran immigrated to New Zealand where he proceeded to claim unemployment benefit until 2012. In the meantime, the 48-year-old father of three also lead a double life as a drug lord and high-rolling gambler who spent more than $15 million whilst frequenting the Sky City Casino in Auckland.
Police managed to infiltrate Van Thanh Tran’s syndicate after an undercover officer posing as a drug dealer traced his influence all the way to the top of a pseudoephedrine ring, the product used to make methamphetamine. Tran and six other casino high-rollers were subsequently placed under surveillance by police, and the records show that he once lost $800,000 in a single week at the Sky City Casino, and $15 million over a 15-month period, with his volume of play totalling around $67 million.
In order to acquire such phenomenal wealth, “Elder Brother Ching”, as he was also called, would arrange for large shipments of pseudoephedrine to be smuggled from China into Auckland before manufacturing then distributing the narcotics. However, luck finally ran out for Tran following the success of Operation Ghost, with Tran now having pleaded guilty to importing and distributing drugs, including 250kg of pseudoephedrines during a single shipment. Tran has since had most of his assets seized by authorities, much of which were actually places in his family members names, including two homes, several cars, cash, bank accounts, and jewellery. Together with the other men involved in the criminal case, over $20 million in assets have thus far been retained under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act of 2009.
In the meantime, the Sky City Casino said it was satisfied it had adhered to money laundering laws, and that the millions gambled by Tran was not unusual for a VIP high-roller. As a casino spokesman explains:
“We were co-operative with the police from the start of this investigation. We are extremely confident that we took all appropriate actions under AML requirements and also that we took proactive steps from a host responsibility perspective. Only a few of the group of players identified by police were regular visitors to the casino, and the level of their play varied widely. In most cases their turnover was not out of the ordinary for local VIPs.”