Wynn Las Vegas has agreed to pay $130 million to resolve an ongoing criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice. This comes after the company admitted criminal wrongdoing by illegally using unlicensed money transmitting businesses.
The pay is more of a settlement money to close the investigation, as Wynn Las Vegas was found guilty of illegal practices to attract high rollers, which include conspiring with unregulated, unlicensed third-party financial services to transfer money out of the country, and also moving large sums of money from foreign gamblers into the casino. That violated Nevada’s anti-money laundering law.
The $130 million is part of a non-prosecution agreement to close the case, which allows Wynn Las Vegas (WLV) to avoid criminal prosecution for meeting certain criteria. According to reports, the penalty paid by Wynn is the largest criminal penalty in the history of the Department of Justice for a casino.
According to the agreement, Wynn Las Vegas admitted to working with third-party independent agents acting as unlicensed money-transmitting businesses to attract international high-roller gamblers. The independent agents then transferred the gamblers’ funds through companies, bank accounts, and other third-party nominees in Latin America and ultimately moved the money into a WLV-controlled bank account in Southern California.
The fund was again transferred into the WLV’s cage account, where Wynn Las Vegas employees with support from their supervisors credited the WLV account of each patron. This enabled international gamblers to evade foreign and U.S. laws governing monetary transfer and reporting.
One name that came up in this illegal work was Juan Carlos Palermo, who acted as an independent agent for the casino. He operated and controlled multiple unlicensed money-transmitting businesses in the United States and also in foreign countries. He conducted more than 200 transfers with Bank accounts linked to WLV or associated with it. All these transactions happened on behalf of more than 50 international casino patrons that exceeded $17.7 million.
Besides illegal money transfers, the Wynn casino admitted to “Human Head” or “Human Hat” gambling, a scheme where foreign gamblers use a person known as the “Human Head” to gamble on their behalf. The Human Head would purchase chips at WLV and gamble for the foreign gambler, who can’t play because of federal laws. However, the gambler would control the Human Head’s gaming.
This news came just after a month of Resorts World, Las Vegas faced serious allegations of breaching the Anti-Money Laundering Law, and also not reporting it when needed.
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