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“Exchange the money for U,” the kidnappers of Chinese businessman Anson Que told his distraught son Alvin Que on April 7, referring to the cryptocurrency Ucoin because the casino junkets have stopped processing Alvin’s big deposits.
It was the seventh day of Anson in captivity, and the ransom money had been negotiated to $5 million, or around P285 million. By April 7, Alvin had already deposited P60 million to the kidnapper’s e-wallets using the casino service of the 9 Dynasty junket group, he said in his affidavit. After several big deposits, the casino service stopped accommodating Alvin.
Frustrated, the kidnappers who were using Anson’s WeChat account told Alvin to look for “underground money lenders,” so he can transact in Ucoin.
Alvin was able to obtain and deposit 2.5 million USDT from April 7 to April 8, based on his own accounting, and which we cross-matched with data on Blockchair, a public search engine that can track crypto transactions.
USDT, a cryptocurrency known as Tether, is a type of stablecoin. Being a stablecoin means the value is not as volatile as other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and it aims to always maintain a 1:1 equivalent to fiat currencies like the dollar. It means that Alvin’s 2.5 million USDT was equivalent to 2.5 million US dollars.
The 2.5 million USDT was taken out of the kidnappers’ accounts on the same day, based on Blockchair data. Following the transaction IDs of the staggered transfers, it seems the kidnappers moved the coins to another account on April 8. Anson Que and his driver were found dead on April 9, despite a total equivalent of P200 million in ransom money paid.
Can they still recover the ransom money?
“The AMLC [Anti Money Laundering Council] is actively collaborating with the PNP [Philippine National Police] to gather evidence on the unlawful activities, tracing the ransom funds in all their forms, and pursuing forfeiture proceedings,” said AMLC in a statement on May 12.
Alvin Que has “yet to formally hear from the authorities regarding the current status of their efforts,” said his lawyer Kit Belmonte in a message to Rappler on Tuesday, July 22.
Cyrptocurrency’s allure is that it is decentralized, doing away with “middlemen” institutions like banks and promising to be more accessible. Tether, however, is centralized and as such, it has been able to help law enforcement track and freeze dirty USDTs. This is a big debate in the crypto world particularly due to concerns that it betrays the principles of decentralized finance or DeFi.
But for the Philippines, which has been used as a scam haven of Southeast Asia through the years, there is yearning for more efficient tracking of laundered money.
“We recognize that tracing and recovering the ransom funds is a difficult and complex undertaking, especially given the nature of cryptocurrency. That said, we are aware of positive developments in tracing at least portions of the funds, and we continue to monitor the situation closely, including the forfeiture proceedings previously noted by the AMLC,” said Belmonte.
Crypto scamming
The blurred money trail is the main reason why pig-butchering scams lure victims into investing in cryptocurrency. The term pig-butchering comes from the practice of scammers who build trust and maintain relationships with potential victims, “fattening” them like pigs before targeting them for fraud.
If they scam crypto, then they can launder crypto. “Without the ability to launder money, there would be significantly less incentive to engage in cryptocurrency-related crimes,” reads an internal briefing on 9Dynasty compiled by Philippine intelligence officers and their international law enforcement partners.
“Contemporary criminals and clandestine monetary transactions utilize over-the-counter (OTC) casino services and encrypted applications, such as Telegram, to mask the origins of their funds,” said the briefer.
“The primary objective remains unchanged: to transfer funds to destinations where the original illicit source cannot be identified and ultimately to a service that permits the exchange of cryptocurrency for cash — typically, this corresponds to cryptocurrency exchanges,” the briefer added.
After being pressured to look for Ucoins from “underground money lenders,” Alvin was able to buy most of his USDTs from 9 Dynasty and White Horse services at another casino, according to his affidavit. Alvin submitted this counter-affidavit to answer an accusation by an arrested suspect that he masterminded the kidnapping of his father. Alvin was cleared on June 18 by prosecutors “due to lack of evidence.”
According to the internal briefer, the OTC casino services act as broker, or essentially the middleman account between the two traders. In the last phase, the OTC broker conducts the currency exchange and transfers it back to the traders. “Only the OTC transaction is visible as a recorded transaction,” said the briefer.
“Public reports suggest that around ₱200 million in ransom was routed through e-wallets tied to casino junket operators, shell accounts, and possibly cryptocurrency — potentially obscuring the money trail,” the anti-money laundering division of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told Rappler in a statement.
The SEC division declined to be interviewed, or answer detailed questions, citing the ongoing investigation.
9 Dynasty
It’s not the first time that 9 Dynasty has been on the radar of Philippine authorities. When the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) raided a cryptocurrency scam hub in Pasay in August 2023, they found that the Filipino directors of the company, SA Rivendell Gaming Corporation, share the same directors as a company called 9 Dynasty Group Inc., which registered with the SEC as a tour and leisure group in 2021.
The company email used to incorporate 9 Dynasty Group Inc. has an “avia management” domain, according to its certificate of incorporation. Avia Leisure Group, a junket operator, is run by Chinese national Liduan Wang, known as Mark Ong, according to SEC documents presented by Senator Risa Hontiveros on January 20, when she opposed the law that would naturalize Wang. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed Wang’s naturalization in April, citing “alarming and revealing warnings.”
A junket operator provides high-rollers all-around service for gamblers, including arranging their hotel accommodations. They also operate an OTC or over-the-counter service at casinos, a source told Rappler, adding that “it’s a bank by itself, but it’s an underground bank.”
Wang is an incorporator of 9 Dynasty Holding Inc., a separately-registered firm.
LINKS. Wang Liduan aka Mark Ong (left) in a ribbon cutting ceremony with Duanren Wu (right) who owns the real estate company in the raided scam farm in Porac, Pampanga. Photo from Senator Risa HontiverosAll of these were enough for the police to tag Wang in Que’s ransom route.
“Ang nagmamay-ari po ng 9 Dynasty ay isang Mark Ong na isang Chinoy, Tsino na ang nasa likod ng 9 Dynasty. Ang kanya pong totoong pangalan Liduang Wang,” said police spokesperson Jean Fajardo in a press conference on May 5.
“Ang 9 Dynasty ay hindi po ordinaryong casino…At ito po ang kanyang mga activities at mga negosyo po: sugal, pera-padala, crypto exchange at lahat po ‘yan ay dinadaan sa sarili po nilang 9 Dynasty e-wallets na wala pong lisensya mula sa BSP at hindi rin po registrado sa Anti-Money Laundering Council,” Fajardo added.
(The owner of 9 Dynasty is Mark Ong, a Chinese, who’s behind 9 Dynasty. His real name is Liduang Wang. 9 Dynasty is not an ordinary casino. Its activities and businesses include gambling, money transfer, crypto exchange and all of that go through its own 9 Dynasty e-wallets which have no license from the Central Bank of the Philippines, and not registered with the Anti-Money Laundering Council.)
Huang Zhiyang, the Chinese fugitive who set up the businesses that housed scam hubs in Clark, Pampanga and Bamban, Tarlac, was found with 9 Dynasty paraphernalia in his home, said Hontiveros in June as she was pushing for the anti-POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) bill, or a measure that would institutionalize and even expand the ban on offshore online gambling.
The money trail design follows a global blueprint that has been noticed in the scamming world.
“Chinese organized crime syndicates, the same ones behind the rise of Scam Inc., have also become the underground bankers for the whole world,” said journalist Sue-Lin Wong in an episode of The Economist podcast series, “Scam Inc.”
BEYOND CASINO. 9 Dynasty paraphernalia found in the Bamban, Tarlac home of Chinese fugitive Huang Zhiyang. Photo courtesy of Senator HontiverosWhere is 9 Dynasty now?
9 Dynasty and White Horse Club notified its channels that it left the Philippine market on May 7, or two days after the police press conference.
“However, the AMLC remains steadfast in its commitment to probe their alleged money laundering activities,” said AMLC, adding that “the investigation extends beyond the kidnappers who directed the ransom payment process. It also targets casino players within these junket operations who initially received the ransom funds via their e-wallets.”
Philippine authorities are still monitoring 9 Dynasty’s supposed footprints in the Philippines after its announced exit, particularly its utilization of another crypto wallet that services Southeast Asia, a source told Rappler.
The SEC amended its rules on crypto-asset service providers or CASPs on May 30 so that they can “improve traceability and reduce the risk of illicit use.” According to the SEC, citing data from reputable blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the Philippines received a total of US$40 billion worth of cryptocurrency from 2023 to 2024.
“We will leverage our regulatory tools and data-sharing capabilities to support the investigation and ensure that any illegal schemes, whether involving digital or traditional financial channels, are effectively identified and dismantled,” the SEC said. – Rappler.com
