MANILA, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said on Wednesday his government was investigating how Alice Guo, a former town mayor accused of ties with Chinese criminal syndicates, managed to flee the country. The Senate investigation began in May after authorities raided a casino in Guo’s sleepy farming town of Bamban in March, uncovering what authorities said were scams perpetrated from a facility built on land partially owned by the former mayor.
Guo’s case comes at a time of growing Philippine suspicion about China’s activities following an increasingly tense dispute over reefs and shoals in the busy waterway of the South China Sea, where both nations have overlapping claims. Shares in the company were placed in a trading halt on Friday because of the public release of the findings from a damning inquiry into a litany of failures within the billion-dollar gambling firm’s operations. But the second Adam Bell-led inquiry declared in its report the period since the last findings in 2022 had been “marked by lost opportunities and missteps”, including four significant compliance breaches.
The NSW regulator’s chief commissioner, Philip Crawford, said the latest Bell report validated concerns that prompted the second inquiry, highlighting a company that had not moved fast enough to address previously aired governance and cultural issues. If you liked this short article and you would like to receive additional details concerning online casino kindly go to the web site. The official did not immediately respond when asked if Guo was still in Indonesia. An Indonesian immigration official who declined to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media confirmed that Guo entered the country on Aug.
18 at 1:13 pm [0513 GMT]. “Those responsible will be suspended and will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” “We will expose the culprits who have betrayed the people’s trust and aided in her flight,” Marcos said in a statement. Its Sydney licence remains suspended after a first inquiry found damning evidence of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism failings, although it has been allowed to keep the casino operating with a regulator-appointed manager.
It showed “systemic and extremely serious issues” involving multiple Star staff falsifying records to suggest they had intervened in players’ extended gambling stretches when no interaction had taken place.