The CEO of leading Asian junket operator Suncity Group, Alvin Chau, has taken the unprecedented step of disclosing the finances of Suncity VIP Club – the non-listed arm that runs its VIP clubs across Asia – following rumors over the weekend that the company was a target of a mainland China anti-crime operation.
In a seven-minute recorded video message released overnight, Chau denied a series of rumors about Suncity Group that have spread across social media in recent days, including suggestions the company had been subsidizing Hong Kong rioters, had been targeted by mainland Chinese authorities, that those same authorities possessed information of their customers and that Suncity was unable to cover the financial deposits of its clients.
According to Chau, none of those rumors are true.
Providing images of Suncity Group bank statements to support his claims, Chau stated that Suncity VIP Club recognized a total amount of fiscal reserve of HK$10.58 billion (US$1.36 billion) and has “cash flows in cage” to be used in the daily operation of the Suncity VIP Club of HK$18.6 billion (US$2.40 billion). It also has total deposits of HK$16.5 billion (US$2.13 billion) in two Macau banks, he revealed.
“We have the capability and enough capital to offset any bad debts and chip deposits of all clients,” Chau said. “I would like to reiterate that Suncity is a very stable financial platform.”
In response to indications that an anti-crime operation is currently underway in mainland China, Chau said this was “completely inconsistent and irrelevant with ‘targeting Suncity’ as mentioned in the rumors.”
His response included a dismissal of suggestions that Suncity Group had subsidized Hong Kong rioters during last year’s civil unrest as, “Extremely absurd and unreasonable.“
He added, “Why would I jeopardize my country? This is extremely absurd.”
Chau also strongly denied talk that authorities in mainland China had acquired customer information, and that the group’s Sun Finance App may have been breached.
“The group has never received any request from overseas or Mainland China demanding customer information,” he said. “As an institution lawfully registered in Macau and regulated by the Macau Personal Data Protection Act, Suncity Group is strictly forbidden to arbitrarily disclose any customer information.
“Rumors said our app has been hacked or that we leaked customer information. I think everyone knows the app is just software in which no customer information is stored in the system. Our server is placed in Macau. Suncity has never disclosed any customer information.”
Suncity Group stated in a seperate press release that the Sun Finance App’s 24-hour monitoring system has not recorded any hacker attacks and that Suncity VIP Club has “never encountered any leakage of customer information.”
The video highlighted a Certificate of Registration confirming the IT department of Suncity Gaming Promotion Company Ltd has previously been awarded ISO 27001 certification by British national standards body BSI.
Chau’s video is the second time in as many months he has sought to defend the company from potentially damaging rumors, having sent a letter to shareholders of Suncity VIP Club in late May informing them they would be exempt from any loss between February and May 2020, with losses to be indemnified by the group’s independent fiscal reserve, due to concerns over the impact of COVID-19.
