The accusations of links between Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE) and Chinese criminal gangs are “baseless, unfounded and untrue”, said the President of the group’s Bahamas subsidiary, Graeme Davis, newspaper Tribune 242 reported.
According to Mr. Davis, the group owns US$60 billion (MOP480 billion) in total assets internationally and operates with the “highest integrity”.
Earlier this week, CTFE officially signed a purchase agreement that will allow the company to own and operate the US$3.5 billion Baha Mar Resort in the Caribbean island nation, which is slated to open in phases starting from April 1 of 2017.
According to Mr. Davis, the Baha Mar Resort project is part of CTFE’s international “strategic growth plan”, which also includes the US$10 billion-plus Greenwich Village project in London and the US$2.3 billion Queen’s Wharf project in Australia.
Business ties
Mr. Davis’ statements were in response to allegations made by the resort’s former director, Dionisio D’Aguilar, who has claimed that the ties between the family of late Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu Tung – founder of Chow Tai Fook – and local gaming tycoon Stanley Ho Hung Sun’s Sociedade de Turismo e Diversões de Macau (STDM) made the group an ‘unsuitable’ investor in the project.
The former company executive had cited a 2009 report by the US State of New Jersey gaming enforcement division saying that a proposed Macau casino joint venture between MGM Mirage and Mr. Ho’s daughter Pansy was related to criminal connections.
However, while the report raised concerns of the possibility that Macau VIP rooms could be vulnerable to criminal associations and considered Mr. Ho an ‘unsuitable’ investor, it didn’t link the Cheng family with the criminal gangs.
