MGM sues junket for HKD 10 million

Local gaming operator MGM Macau has filed a lawsuit against a VIP gaming promoter and North Korean tour operator for failing to repay a HKD 10 million debt.
According to South China Morning Post, MGM lodged a complaint in the Hong Kong High Court alleging that the junket drew down HKD 10 million on a credit line issued by the casino and lost it all on the gaming tables on September 2008.
Until September 2010 the defendant has only managed to pay HKD 4.4 million in nine instalments, less than half of the total debt. According to the lawsuit MGM is asking for the remaining HKD 5.6 million plus an annual 18 per cent interest.
The suspect is a “VIP room operator, a suspected triad member and an individual with ties to North Korea”, the attorney-general of the US State of New Jersey wrote in a 2009 regulatory report, citing a 2003 background memo authored by the then head of corporate security at MGM Macau’s controlling shareholder, US-based MGM Resorts.
According to the same report the junket operator has been involved in the operations of Stanley Ho Hung Sun’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) casino in Pyongyang.
According to the 2009 New Jersey report, in January 2007 he accompanied Pansy Ho Chiu King, who owns 27.4 per cent of MGM, on a trip to Kazakhstan to explore gaming and non-gaming development possibilities for STDM and Shun Tak.