Leong Expects Mop16b Sept Gaming Revenue P6
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
PROPERTY SALES DROP ‘DEVELOPMENT WITHOUT EXPLOSIONS 22 PERCENT A DIRECTION’ KILL 7, Only 443 units were sold In an interview with the INJURE during the month. The Times ahead of his departure DOZENS IN average price per square to Rome, musician Aurelio SOUTHERN meter fell 16.87 percent Porfiri reflects on Macau CITY P2 P4-5 INTERVIEW P11 CHINA THU.01 Oct 2015 T. 25º/ 30º C H. 70/ 95% Blackberry email service powered by CTM MOP 5.00 2410 N.º HKD 7.50 FOUNDER & PUBLISHER Kowie Geldenhuys EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Paulo Coutinho “ THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’ ” WORLD BRIEFS CHINA Police have arrested Leong expects MOP16b two Japanese citizens on spying allegations, officials said yesterday. Japanese Chief Cabinet Spokesman P6 Yoshihide Suga told Sept gaming revenue reporters that the two were detained in May, one in Zhejiang province and the other in Liaoning. China said the two are suspected AP PHOTO of spying. More on p11 SINGAPORE The government said that it has been holding two of its citizens since August for attempting to make their way to Syria to join the Islamic State group. More on p13 THAILAND Three city policemen in Bangkok were fired after failing to appear for questioning about their alleged role in extorting 1 million baht (USD27,500) from a Japanese businessman. The police said three men, later determined to be police officers, confronted the man and his Thai girlfriend at their condominium in central Bangkok and threatened to arrest them on drug charges unless they were paid 3 million baht ($82,500). The couple were held until agreeing to hand over a reduced sum of 1 million baht ($27,500). More on backpage Asia’s largest movie festival set to kick off in Busan P14 14 HOLIDAY TIMES Macau Daily Times will not be published tomor- will be updated with breaking news during the re- row. The Times will be back on the stands on cess period. We wish our readers, advertisers and days to go Monday, October 5. However the MDT website friends the best of times. INSIDE 01.10.2015 thu th Anniversary 2 MACAU 澳聞 editorial Paulo Coutinho Billionaire Ng probe yielded DORE TO DOOR GREED earlier arrest, lawyer says My informed sources say that over 60 per- cent of Dore investors are Macau residents. This is typical of the stories where you can’t Patricia Hurtado really distinguish victims from perpetrators because they are all in the same boat. And you HE U.S. secretly ar- can’t see a clear divide because you have to dig Trested a third person into the complexity of our high-stakes socie- as part of an investigation ty - the masks obscuring investors’ faces just of billionaire Macau de- adds depth to my argument, as a metaphor. veloper Ng Lap Seng, a In a sense, one can say, “the city” is entangled. lawyer for his assistant All it takes is one rogue to rock the boat. told a federal magistrate The elusive Ms Chow was apparently a “trus- Tuesday. table employee,” as they say in the junket wor- That person’s name is ld. Apparently, she had access to “the cage.” being withheld by the go- Apparently, she chose the wrong horse (wha- vernment, the lawyer said le) to privately back under the green table. during a court hearing When the shit hit the fan, her game collapsed. Tuesday. The person, a What has intrigued me since day one is the woman, was described in wide-band figure of the alleged theft: 200 court papers filed against million to one billion. Come again? The books Ng as having had “busi- must be very messy to postulate such a diffe- ness dealings” with him. rential. Meanwhile, the number has been up- The charges against the dated from the low band (200m) to 300m and woman are pending un- afterwards to 400 million. Maybe the trou- der seal in federal court in bling exchange rate HKD-RMB boggled the Brooklyn, the lawyer said. accounting; alright. Or maybe, just maybe, Ng, 68, who has a per- Ng Lap Seng there was a need to pinpoint a scapegoat for sonal net worth of about all the troubles the junkets are enduring. USD1.8 billion, has been Shroff, said at a bail hea- Sarah Netburn voiced con- pose is,” she said. “A pass- Dore’s case raised red flags all over the pro- held in a federal jail in ring Tuesday that the go- cern that Yin didn’t tell U.S. port he kept in his prover- perties. Junkets were quick to adapt to the Manhattan since he was vernment was attempting officials he had a Chinese bial back pocket should he muddy waters, and to keep their books in arrested Sept. 19, accu- to prosecute her client passport in addition to a get into trouble.” shape they were but very cautious. As a result sed of bringing 4.5 million and the woman, described U.S. passport. She also said Prosecutors say they rolling on high stakes tables had gone down into the country and lying as “Individual-1” in a cri- he had the means to flee, have evidence that Ng wi- steeply in the weeks following the “theft” - to about its purpose to U.S. minal complaint against noting that he was carrying red at least $19 million to the dismay of both casinos and public coffers. authorities. Federal law Ng. Shroff said the govern- $15,000 in cash when he U.S. bank accounts and in- According to HSBC analysts, the daily run requires people ente- ments wants them to pro- was arrested and had ac- dividuals. Ng and Yin were rate (DRR) dropped in the first week after ring the U.S. to disclose vide information against cess to a safety deposit en route to leave the U.S. the exposé to MOP493 – a steep decline from to customs agents if they Ng, who she called “the box containing more than from Teterboro Airport in MOP607 million per day just the week before. are carrying more than real person they’re after.” $430,000, even though he New Jersey on a private The same goes for the casino and junket sto- $10,000. Shroff said her client had claimed his personal net plane when they were ar- cks at the HKSE which have been on a roller- His assistant, Jeff Yin, severed all ties with Ng worth is about $35,000. rested, Assistant U.S. At- coaster decline, especially from the moment 29, who was also arrested and rejected a lawyer he’d “The information that’s torney Daniel Richenthal Neptune Group added fear to the chaos, and charged, was ordered sent to represent him. been provided to me in- said. Shroff declined to saying they are down almost a billion and held without bail after a “It’s very clear they have dicates that Mr. Yin does comment after court. threatening to leave Macau. federal magistrate conclu- many other fish to fry,” prove a risk of flight,” Ne- The case is U.S. v. Ng, 15- The investment scheme exposed by the Dore ded Tuesday he may try Shroff said. “My client is tburn said. “The fact that mj-03369, U.S. District case is far from being unique. Residents have to flee the country if he’s just a link, as is Indivi- there is this passport he’s Court, Southern District been putting their savings for decades in this released on bond. dual-1 in Brooklyn.” carrying with him makes of New York (Manhattan). 2 percent per month “cladded” revenue. It Yin’s lawyer, Sabrina U.S. Magistrate Judge me wonder what his pur- Bloomberg worked just fine for a long time but now a big lot are in trouble. In some cases, people even mortgage their pricey flats to forge liquid as- sets to invest in the high-stakes’ game. The Dore investments serve as a public example of the many residents “informally” investing in the big end of town. And the num- Property sales drop 22 percent y-o-y ber goes higher if we add the “formal” ways of proxy-betting, like investing in high leveraged financial instruments such as options and fu- HE average price per square ninsula dropped by 7.88 percent tures of gaming stocks. Tmeter of property in Macau fell to MOP82,506 per square meter. 16.87 percent in August year-on- In Taipa the decline was more The cynics are having a field day: what’s BLOOMBERG new?! After all, the “whole” city has been into year. Data released by the Finance extreme, with the average price gambling, everybody and the government Service Bureau (DSF) yesterday in- per square meter at MOP81,391 know it. Everybody and the government have dicates that August property sales (down 27.37 percent year-on- turned a blind eye because people were happy registered a sharp 22 percent de- year). In Coloane the decline making a quick fortune. cline when compared with those of amounted to 28.57 percentage It took a rogue to rock an entire city. Door- the previous year. Only 443 units points, although the average price to-door. were sold during the month. Residential buildings stand in the Cheoc Van per square meter remains the hi- Average prices on the Macau pe- area, Coloane ghest, at MOP102,093. DIRECTOR AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF_Paulo Coutinho [email protected] A MACAU TIMES PUBLICATIONS LtD PUBLICATION www.macaudailytimes.com.mo MANAGING EDITOR_Paulo Barbosa [email protected] MDT’s Website has logged over CONTRIBUTING EDITORS_Eric Sautedé, Leanda Lee, Severo Portela ADMINISTRATOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER CHINA & FOREIGN EDITOR_Vanessa Moore [email protected] Kowie Geldenhuys [email protected] 94 million page views DESIGN EDITOR_João Jorge Magalhães [email protected] | NEWSROOM AND CONTRIBUTORS_Albano SECRETARY Juliana Cheang [email protected] Martins, António Espadinha Soares, Aries Un, Brook Yang, Catarina Pinto, Cyril Law, Emilie Tran, Grace Yu, Irene Sam, Jacky I.F.