The owner of Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino has asked the court to dismiss the 155 charges filed against the company, saying the U.S. government admits that there was no criminal offense.<\/p>\n
Attorney Bruce Berline, counsel for Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investment Ltd., asserted that counts 2-156 should be dismissed as the U.S. government concedes that incomplete preparation of a currency transaction report or CTR is not a criminal offense.<\/p>\n
Berline said the U.S. government tries to negate the plain and express language of the second superseding indictment by claiming that counts 2-156 do not allege an offense of incomplete preparation. Specifically, the lawyer said, the U.S. government represents that counts 2-156 only charge \u201cthe offense of failure to file.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA review of the second superseding indictment shows otherwise,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n
Berline said contrary to the U.S. government\u2019s assertions, counts 2-156 do not only charge a failure to file CTRs, the counts include charges for the violation of incomplete preparation of the CTRs, which is not a criminal offense.<\/p>\n
In May 2013, the U.S. government charged HKE with one count of conspiracy to cause a financial institution to fail to file a CTR, and eight counts of causing a financial institution to fail to file a CTR. The indictment also contained a forfeiture count.<\/p>\n
In September 2014, the U.S. government filed a superseding indictment charging HKE with one count of conspiracy to cause a financial institution to fail to file a CTR and 155 counts of failure to file a CTR. It also contains one count of failure to file a suspicious activity report and one count of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. It also has a notice of forfeiture.<\/p>\n
In November 2014, the U.S. government filed a second superseding indictment which contains one count of conspiracy to cause a financial institution to fail to file a CTR, and 155 counts of failure to file a CTR (2-156). It also contains one count of failure to file a suspicious activity report, and one count of failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program. It has a notice of forfeiture.<\/p>\n
The initial indictment had charged HKE and then-VIP services manager George Que and then-casino manager Tim Blyth with only 10 charges.<\/p>\n
According to the indictment, HKE allowed gamblers at Tinian Dynasty to conduct transactions involving more than $10,000 without filing CTRs with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, from September 2009 to April 25, 2013.<\/p>\n
Tinian Dynasty allegedly failed to file about 3,640 CTRs for cash transactions over $10,000 as required by law. The total dollar amount of reportable currency transactions that were not filed is about $1.38 million.<\/p>\n
Que and Blyth had entered into a settlement deal with the U.S. government in exchange for the dismissal of the criminal charges against them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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