Posted on: August 23, 2024, 12:46h.
Last updated on: August 23, 2024, 12:46h.
An online gaming company that pledged to invest millions into transforming a derelict vacation center on the Isle of Man into a swanky office complex was operating a large-scale “pig-butchering” scam on the island.
King Gaming’s plan to build a multimillion-dollar HQ with office and residential space, plus two eateries and a landscaped park, was described by local media as the “largest ever single private investment on the Isle of Man.”
But in April, King Gaming’s gambling license was suspended by the island’s regulator, the Gambling Supervision Commission. That’s after police raided the company’s offices and arrested ten staff members as part of an investigation into fraud, money laundering, and immigration violations.
At the same time, the regulator suspended the license of Dalimine Ltd., King’s B2B arm. Then the Isle of Man Financial Services Authority ordered cryptocurrency firm, Soteria Solutions, to cease operations because it shared directors and officers with King and was registered at the same address.
‘Scam Kingpin’ Named
Now, the BBC has revealed that this web of associated companies also included Manx Internet Commerce (MIC), a scam factory targeting Chinese citizens that existed on the island between January 2022 and January 2023.
MIC initially operated out of a room in the Seaview Hotel in Douglas, the Manx capital, before moving to former bank offices on the east side of town.
In late 2013, six people who worked for MIC in Douglas were convicted in China of conducting investment scams on Chinese citizens, having been charged with fraud on their return to their homeland, the BBC reports.
The sole beneficiary of MIC, King Gaming, and all associated companies is a man who calls himself “Bill Morgan,” also known as Liang Lingfei, the BBC has learned.
Liang is Chinese born but travels on a Dominican passport. He was not among those prosecuted in China in late 2013, and its unclear whether he was one of those arrested by Manx authorities in April.
“Pig-butchering” refers to a long-term fraud in which the victim is befriended over the internet and gradually lured into making increasing payments into a fraudulent investment scheme, typically using cryptocurrency.
‘Killing Pig Plate’
Originating in China, where it’s called “Sha Zhu Pan,” literally translated as “killing pig plate,” there has been an explosion of these types of scam centers across Southeast Asia since 2016, particularly in countries such as the Philippines and Cambodia.
However, it’s uncommon to find such Chinese-facing operations in the West. The Isle of Man is a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea with an independent government.
A haven for offshore banking, its investment in IT infrastructure and reputation for light-touch regulation have turned it into one of Europe’s foremost jurisdictions for online gambling and fintech firms.
But in recent years, it has also attracted Asian-facing online gambling companies. These operators are lured by the “white-label” system, which allows them to piggyback onto a third-party’s UK gambling license.
In turn, this enables them to sponsor English Premier League soccer teams, an advertising springboard to the Chinese market, where promoting gambling is strictly illegal.
But the emergence of a scam center on the Isle of Man may force the island’s authorities to ask themselves some difficult questions about their licensing regime.
