The Office of the Special Prosecutor filed criminal charges against 61 Chinese nationals for promoting gambling and working without permit. The case stemmed from arrests that were made between February and June 15th of 2020.
In June, working with Office of Human Trafficking and Foreign Investment Board, Office of Special Prosecutor arrested Chinese individuals at Harvest Hotel in Semiich, Koror.
During that arrest, they were able to seize Multiple computer workstations, cellphones, active monitors, electronic devices and paraphernalia.
According to OSP Criminal Investigator Helenda Oimei, upon execution of search warrant at the Harvest Hotel, they detained 61 Chinese occupants who were found without work permits. They found 64 laptop computers, 170 cellphones, 92 flash drives, 509 tokens (for banking) 163 credit/debit cards from China and over $84,000 US dollars. Currencies were also in Vietnamese, Chinese yuan and Hong Kong dollars.
Also, according to Oimei, records show high speed internet service to the hotel private room. The service is said to have cost $1,450 paid in cash by a Mr. Wang. This was considered highly unusual for a individual hotel guest on tourist visa to acquire installation of such high speed internet to one room.
Based on these and other information acquired, Office of Special Prosecutor moved to file a criminal case against each of the 61 individuals arrested.
Previous cases of arrests of Chinese nationals suspected of promoting or engaging in an online gambling activity without work permit, resulted in Labor and Immigration citations and fines of $50 per person and release of individuals to return to their countries of origin.