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MelissaB

(16,420 posts)
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 08:47 PM Mar 2017

FBI Agents Visit Office of Saipan Casino Run by Trump Protege / **Money Laundering**

**(Read people involved)**

This could get interesting... I think it's called money laundering.

FBI Agents Visit Office of Saipan Casino Run by Trump Protege

by Matthew Campbell
March 30, 2017, 6:20 PM EDT

Agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation visited an office belonging to the operator of a casino on the remote U.S. island of Saipan that has attracted attention for its huge revenues, according to a local legislator and residents.

... snip

Saipan, an island of 50,000 residents closer to China than to Hawaii, relaxed rules on casinos in 2014 and soon awarded Imperial Pacific exclusive rights to open casinos there. The casino, run by an executive who cut his teeth in Atlantic City casinos then owned by Donald Trump, enlisted a slate of luminary overseers including former leaders of both the Republican and Democratic national parties in the U.S.

Its board members include James Woolsey, who ran the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in the early 1990s and was among national-security advisers to Trump’s presidential campaign. Former FBI director Louis Freeh and Ed Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman, sit on an advisory committee, as does Haley Barbour, the ex-Mississippi governor and Republican National Committee chairman who’s now a prominent lobbyist.

...snip

Imperial Pacific Chairman Mark Brown is a former executive in President Trump’s Atlantic City casino empire. He has led Imperial Pacific’s plan to replace what it describes as a temporary gaming facility with a much larger casino complex in coming weeks.

More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-30/fbi-agents-visit-office-of-saipan-casino-run-by-trump-protege


Check out this story from November

Big Money, Big Questions at Trump Protege's Remote Casino
Far-flung gambling operation advised by former FBI and CIA chiefs posts huge revenues—and its flows of cash have drawn the attention of the U.S. Treasury.


by Daniela Wei
and Matthew Campbell
November 13, 2016, 4:00 PM EST

On a tiny island in the western Pacific, at the end of a duty-free mall wedged between a one-story laundromat and a cell-phone shop, you’ll find what may be the most successful casino of all time.

The awkwardly named Best Sunshine Live hardly looks like a high-roller hub. Construction workers bet $5 or $10 at a time on roulette and baccarat in a fug of nicotine. Clustered in a far corner are a handful of tables for so-called VIP gamblers, which at 8:30 p.m. on a September Saturday are almost empty. A nearby bar has just a couple of patrons.

Nothing about the facility, which opened last year on the U.S. island of Saipan, hints at the money flowing through it—table for table, far more than at the biggest casinos in Macau, the world’s number-one gambling capital. Nor is there any sign of the connections of its owner, Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., which has a market value of $2.4 billion.

It’s a power list that includes a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and three former U.S. governors, including past chairmen of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Behind them all: a Donald Trump protege, Mark Brown, who ran the Republican president-elect’s Atlantic City casino empire and is now Imperial Pacific’s chief executive officer.

...snip

“A legitimate high-stakes gambler wouldn’t want to spend time in this place,” Hunter, the plaintiff in the suit against the Saipan casino law, said of Best Sunshine. “Have you seen it? It’s a duty-free store with a fresh coat of paint and some chandeliers.”
More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-13/obscure-casino-run-by-a-trump-protege-is-raising-big-questions
7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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FBI Agents Visit Office of Saipan Casino Run by Trump Protege / **Money Laundering** (Original Post) MelissaB Mar 2017 OP
I updated with the last paragraph. MelissaB Mar 2017 #1
wow....what a bunch of low life leeches, all of them Gabi Hayes Mar 2017 #2
From one of the most influencial people on the internet... MelissaB Mar 2017 #3
Interesting Warpy Mar 2017 #5
Big Money, Big Questions at Trump Protege's Remote Casino Far-flung gambling operation advised by MelissaB Mar 2017 #4
Last paragraph... MelissaB Mar 2017 #6
I updated with this article because it gives important background. MelissaB Mar 2017 #7

MelissaB

(16,420 posts)
1. I updated with the last paragraph.
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 08:50 PM
Mar 2017
Imperial Pacific Chairman Mark Brown is a former executive in President Trump’s Atlantic City casino empire. He has led Imperial Pacific’s plan to replace what it describes as a temporary gaming facility with a much larger casino complex in coming weeks.
 

Gabi Hayes

(28,795 posts)
2. wow....what a bunch of low life leeches, all of them
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 08:50 PM
Mar 2017

woolsey and barbour have done by far the most damage to our democracy, though

Warpy

(111,141 posts)
5. Interesting
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 08:57 PM
Mar 2017

Wonder who he is IRL...

Still, it's not difficult to see GOPs in businesses like international casinos. That party has been acting like a racketeering organization since Nixon was in office.

MelissaB

(16,420 posts)
4. Big Money, Big Questions at Trump Protege's Remote Casino Far-flung gambling operation advised by
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 08:56 PM
Mar 2017
Big Money, Big Questions at Trump Protege's Remote Casino
Far-flung gambling operation advised by former FBI and CIA chiefs posts huge revenues—and its flows of cash have drawn the attention of the U.S. Treasury.


by Daniela Wei
and Matthew Campbell
November 13, 2016, 4:00 PM EST

On a tiny island in the western Pacific, at the end of a duty-free mall wedged between a one-story laundromat and a cell-phone shop, you’ll find what may be the most successful casino of all time.

The awkwardly named Best Sunshine Live hardly looks like a high-roller hub. Construction workers bet $5 or $10 at a time on roulette and baccarat in a fug of nicotine. Clustered in a far corner are a handful of tables for so-called VIP gamblers, which at 8:30 p.m. on a September Saturday are almost empty. A nearby bar has just a couple of patrons.

Nothing about the facility, which opened last year on the U.S. island of Saipan, hints at the money flowing through it—table for table, far more than at the biggest casinos in Macau, the world’s number-one gambling capital. Nor is there any sign of the connections of its owner, Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings Ltd., which has a market value of $2.4 billion.

It’s a power list that includes a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and three former U.S. governors, including past chairmen of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Behind them all: a Donald Trump protege, Mark Brown, who ran the Republican president-elect’s Atlantic City casino empire and is now Imperial Pacific’s chief executive officer.

More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-13/obscure-casino-run-by-a-trump-protege-is-raising-big-questions

MelissaB

(16,420 posts)
6. Last paragraph...
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 09:00 PM
Mar 2017
“A legitimate high-stakes gambler wouldn’t want to spend time in this place,” Hunter, the plaintiff in the suit against the Saipan casino law, said of Best Sunshine. “Have you seen it? It’s a duty-free store with a fresh coat of paint and some chandeliers.”

MelissaB

(16,420 posts)
7. I updated with this article because it gives important background.
Thu Mar 30, 2017, 09:05 PM
Mar 2017

I think we just might be hearing more about this story.

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