Mr. Big, obviously not revealing his real name, took to telegram where he posted an ad to his Telegram channel. In exchange for a 10% cut, he was looking for a "group of smuggling teams" to "complete the final conversion" of the stolen money by smuggling gold and valuable stones into southern China through Myanmar.
While it is still unclear whether Mr. Big succeeded in his plans, his ad has now been deleted and when the infamous investigative newsroom ProPublica tried to contact him, they were unable to get in touch with him. However, the website where he posted his advertisement reveals a lot about the reasons why Americans and individuals all over the world have been the subject of a massive wave of fraud that originated in Southeast Asia and is only now starting to be understood on a much larger scale.
In their recent event of crime investigation, Singapore police seized a whopping sum of more than $2 billion in a case of money laundering executed by a syndicate with alleged ties to organized crime, including "scams and online gambling."
The Telegram channel that contained Mr. Big's request for help was a Chinese-language forum that provided access to "white capital"—cash that has been laundered—and that was "guaranteed" by a casino owner in Myanmar, Fully Light Group. This operator claims to make sure that agreements made on the site are carried out.
Also, Fully Light has its own Telegram channel which provide advertisements of similar services. One such channel has around 117,000 participants, and features advertisements of cryptocurrency swaps for accessing “pure white,” Chinese renminbi or “white capital” Singaporean dollars.
Casinos further aids in such dealings, which is quite apparent. According to a new research conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, a vast number of casinos and other gambling operators in Southeast Asia have turned out to be a primary aspect in the functioning of underground banking system, aiding organized criminal groups. However, the research has not been officially published.
A report by UNODC notes that currently there are more than 340 physical casinos in Southeast Asia, and several online gambling operators that serve the escalation of infiltration in organized crimes.
