An alliance of the rich, the powerful and the suspicious

By Mata Press Service

What does a powerful Asian family linked to the Chinese Mafia, a former Canadian prime minister and a Vancouver-based resort developer have in common?
The answer lies on a pristine beach in the South China Sea which was once a haven for American troops from the war against the communists and which later served as the staging ground for the “boat people” who fled their homeland of Vietnam.
Called the Ho Tram project, the US$4.2 billion plan brings together ex-prime minister Jean Chretien, the Vancouver-based Asian Coast Development Ltd (ACDL) group and Pansy Ho, the daughter of Asia’s gambling czar, Stanley Ho, who has been the subject of intelligence reports from Canada, Australia and the United States linking him to Chinese organized crime.
Last week, it was formally announced that ACDL has been licensed to operate a Las Vegas-style casino in Vietnam for the very first time.
ACDL chose MGM Mirage to manage the casino in Ho Tram resort.
Pansy Ho is a key player in MGM Mirage and a joint-venture partner with the Las Vegas gaming behemoth in Asia.
On April 9, Jean Chretien, one of Canada’s longest serving politicians met with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi to reaffirm his support of and ACDL’s commitment to the Ho Tram Strip project.
This meeting came less than two weeks after Pansy Ho was described as an “unsuitable partner” for MGM Mirage because she was financially dependent on her father, by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, which was looking at MGM’s operations in Atlantic City.
“It’s interesting when the rich, the powerful and the suspicious come together to build a casino,” a veteran organized crime analyst told the Asian Pacific Post.
He noted that Pansy Ho had applied to open a casino in Vancouver under the administration of Premier Glen Clark. The application, he said, was withdrawn, after similar objections were raised by Asian Organised Crime analysts.
Unlike British Columbia, where casino applications and subsequent official scrutiny is kept under wraps,
New Jersey gaming regulators released their findings saying the patriarch Ho lets criminal gangs “operate and thrive” inside his casinos in Macau.
The found that daughter Pansy Ho is dependent on him and his money and remains under his influence.
Their suspicions led MGM Mirage to agree to sell its stake in Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa - Atlantic City’s top casino — rather than abandon the lucrative Macau market, where it has a joint venture with Ho’s daughter.
MGM Mirage simply substituted Pansy Ho for Stanley Ho, once it realized it wouldn’t get licensed in New Jersey if it were affiliated with Stanley Ho, gaming investigators asserted.
The New Jersey agency said 90 percent of the money Pansy Ho put up as part of the joint venture with MGM Mirage came from her father.
Pansy Ho had no prior casino experience and continues to hold leadership positions in her father’s companies, the report said. Last year, she said she operates independently of her father.
MGM Mirage forcefully defended Pansy Ho, noting in a statement that she has never been accused of any wrongdoing.
“Gaming regulators in the other jurisdictions where we operate casinos are well aware of this matter, had access to the same information as the New Jersey gaming regulators, and have all either determined that the Company’s relationship with Pansy Ho is appropriate or that further action was not necessary.
“MGM Mirage structured its business relationship with Pansy Ho to ensure the highest standards of operation and compliance with all applicable gaming laws and to protect against any improper influence.”We have had a very positive working relationship with Pansy Ho and have a spotless operating record at MGM Grand Macau,” the company stated.
In Hong Kong Stanley Ho was once again forced to say that there is “no foundation” to reports that claim he is associated with Macau’s triads or organized crime.
The allegations leveled against the trim billionaire are not new.
In 2004, in a two-part series on Stanley Ho, the Asian Pacific Post detailed the connections of the casino king who has friends in high places in virtually every corner of the globe.
In Canada, he has been feted and wooed and given medals by the likes of Jean Chretien, Brian Mulroney and several premiers of British Columbia.
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton, deposed Philippine president Joseph Estrada, ex-British premier Margaret Thatcher and China‘s top dog Jiang Zemin are just some of the names on his rolodex.
Ho had one time owned the Sutton Place hotel in Vancouver and was described as having the ugliest mansion at the entrance of the city’s world famous Stanley Park.
The intelligence data, which has been vehemently denied by Ho, state the operations of the gambling king are intricately linked to Asian organized crime.
A RCMP document called the Asian Organized Crime Roster has him listed as Triad leader while a similar American report put Ho on a watchlist.
But all the alleged criminal connections were never proven allowing Ho and his family to build a global business empire with little hindrance and a lot of influence.
Asian Organized crime sources told The Asian Pacific Post that Ho and his connections are listed in numerous classified intelligence files.
“I am sure that our politicians know about this but he still has unfettered access to them,” said the source, adding the issue has been raised in Canada’s parliament.
During another scandal involving him in the Philippines that caused the stock market to crash, Ho took out ads in Manila newspapers to defend himself from allegations that he was linked to organized crime.
Those allegations stemmed from reports in Canadian government files.
In the ads, Ho noted his “substantial investments“ in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto.
“I have traveled freely and been welcomed there, including to Vancouver in 1997 when I hosted delegates at my hotel (Sutton Place) in Vancouver for the APEC conference, and to the United States when I met with President Clinton,“ he said.
Ho by then was named or listed in several Canadian intelligence databanks including the National Security Register of the Canadian spy agency - CSIS.
In the United States, a report prepared for the Department of Justice by Philip Baridon listed Ho as one of 27 people linked to Asian organized crime who are on an American watchlist. Ho‘s named was removed after his lawyers visited with Department of Justice.
Ho has also never been able to make much headway into Australia because of extensive Australian Security Intelligence Organisation reports on his background, connections and links.
Ho does not view the country as a “friendly nation“, according to a Queensland-based China analyst.
Ho failed in his attempts to get a casino licence in Australia.
The New South Wales Gaming Licensing Board (now defunct) has a report on Stanley Ho which is stamped “never to be released.“ Its officials have deemed Ho “an unsuitable person to hold a casino licence”.
– with news files

The Ho Tram Project

The first of five resorts planned for the Ho Tram strip, the MGM Grand Ho Tram will anchor the $4.2 billion multi-property resort complex being developed by ACDL on 420 acres of land along 2.2 kilometers of pristine beaches bordering the South China Sea. Located in the Ba Ria -Vung Tau Province of southwest Vietnam, 130 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, it will be the initial component of the most ambitious tourism complex in Vietnam.
The MGM Grand Ho Tram will ultimately feature 1,100 rooms, a world-class gaming and entertainment facility, luxury retail stores, chef-driven restaurants, high-tech meeting space, live entertainment stages, destination spa services, an exclusive VIP area and a championship golf course as well as a variety of beach-front recreation activities.
The casino will be off-limits to most of Vietnam’s 86 million people and will instead cater to gamblers from the region.
The 16 countries in close proximity to Vietnam comprise almost two-thirds of the world’s population, but only five percent of the world’s licensed gaming establishments.
According to a 2009 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, casino gambling revenues in the Asia Pacific region could more than double to $34.4 billion in the next few years, from $16.5 billion in 2007.