$13million missing at the Jeju Casino
With $13million in cash having disappeared, three suspects apparently on the run, and a police investigation turning up millions in a VIP safe, the Landing Casino in Jeju, South Korea is in the midst of its very own ‘Oceans 11’ crime caper movie plot. Check out the best online casinos here!
The Jeju casino is well-known to poker fans for hosting the prestigious Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. Apparently the fact that so much cash is kept on the premises that the $13million may have been missing for months.
Two weeks ago, the first public inkling that a massive robbery had taken place came when an announcement was made to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
That reads: “…on 4 January 2021, the management of the Group discovered that certain funds amounting to approximately ₩14.56 billion (Korean Won, equivalent to approximately HK$103.8 million [or US$13.4 million]) belonging to the Group kept in Jeju, South Korea was missing (the “Incident”).
An initial police report indicated that “The money seems to have been taken away over a period of seven to eight months. But it seems that the theft was not noticed as a large amount of cash was always stored in the safe.”
To make matters more difficult, the Korea Times reported: “The missing money does not belong to Jeju Shinhwa World or Landing Casino but Landing International Development, the parent company of Landing Entertainment Korea.”
With security footage apparently wiped, and unable to contact the employee in charge of the missing funds, police then launched a ‘manhunt’, believed to be searching for a female Malaysian employee.
Police stated that they were searching for “a Malaysian employee who was in charge of fund management,” who, “went missing at the same time as the theft was discovered after going on a year-end holiday.”
However, as they scoured CCTV and the city for any sightings of the missing woman, they stumbled upon millions of Korean Won in multiple places.
Firstly, ₩8.15 m (US$7.36million) was recovered from the Jeju casino’s VIP room safe – though no-one yet knows if this cash haul is in any way connected to the theft.
About 300 kg in Korean Won bills
Then a search of the employee’s apartment recovered ₩4billion (US$3.61million) again in cash.
Incredibly, with the money being in ₩50k notes (as pictured below) the total weight of the cash would be close to 300 kg, not easy to hide on, or transport off, Jeju island, let alone sneak past casino security in the first place.
The Malaysian employee suspect, as well as a Chinese national, described in some reports as an accomplice, are believed to be outside South Korea, while police are searching for a third suspect within the country.
The suspected inside job is a far cry from most of the other casino robberies we have seen recently, the Bellagio Casino robber dying in a shootout with police in 2019, and the New York, New York casino seeing an armed robbery last year soon after re-opening.
Inside jobs are not exactly new. However, with a massive robbery in Macau taking place in 2016, junket operators grabbing $12.75 million from more than ten separate VIP rooms, and a dealer pocketing $6.1million in chips and fleeing the casino floor in 2019.
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