The Commission has recently completed an investigation of weaknesses in anti-money laundering (AML) controls at Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casinos (Grosvenor) prompted by the money laundering conviction of a former leading customer, Mr Da Feng Ding.
The Commission has investigated a separate case involving “Customer B”, a Rank meccabingo.com customer who is awaiting sentencing after recently pleading guilty to defrauding a six-figure sum from her employers…
In the first case the Commission investigated Grosvenor’s handling of its relationship with a Mr Ding, who spent a large volume of cash over a period of approximately three years from 2008 to 2011. The Commission’s findings included that Grosvenor:
- failed to take effective and timely action to verify the identity of the customer
- failed to take a sufficiently robust and risk-based approach in establishing the customer’s source of funds
- failed to take appropriate action when Grosvenor staff had suspicions about the customer’s transactions or when it would have been reasonable for them to have had such suspicions
- failed to take and keep adequate records
- misunderstood its responsibilities in relation to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, particularly in relation to the reporting of suspicious activities to law enforcement agencies.
In the second unrelated case, Customer B was able to gamble a six-figure sum without Rank Digital undertaking sufficient AML checks or undertaking adequate monitoring from a social responsibility perspective.
Rank Group is taking the following steps to address the shortcomings identified:
- undertaking a critical review of AML controls within the business, led by an external provider
- disseminating learning from the shortcomings identified through seminars or other forms of direct engagement with other operators
- divesting itself of the gross profits made as a result of the shortcomings, and apply the substantial six-figure sum to agreed socially responsible purposes pay an amount to the Commission to cover the costs of the investigations.