Bicycle Hotel & Casino Settles $500K Agreement with DOJ

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has settled a $500,000 non-prosecution agreement with the operators of the Bicycle Hotel & Casino in Bell Gardens. The move has to do with violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, DoJ said in a Friday release.

The casino admitted to having failed to file reports for a Chinese patron who spent millions at the property in 2016, the Department explained. Because of this, Bicycle Casino has been found in breach of compliance procedures relating to federal AML rules.

The settlement with the Department comes on top of a number of other initiatives launched by the casino, including a commitment to improving the overall AML mechanisms that the casino uses to vet patrons and meet federal guidelines in the matter.

DoJ said that the case pertained to a Chinese national who had gambled at the casino over 100 times in 2016 and spent millions. While the person in question remained anonymous, he had played high-limit baccarat in the property’s VIP room and transported the money to and from the casino in duffel bags.

Big Money Changing Hands at Bicycle Casino

In one instance, the player clocked in $2 million in a single game session it seemed. The session took place between 2:45 pm on one day until 1:20 am in the morning on the next, federal authorities discovered. Authorities got suspicious because the money was filed under the unnamed individual’s assistant who registered $100 million in cash transactions to his name rather than filing them to the high roller’s name.

The sessions, which started on January 7, 2016, went on through July 27, 2016. The casino failed to flag the overall high roller activity under the Suspicious Activity Reports for Casinos (SARCS). However, in the end, was casino staff informed senior management on time so that the property sought to remedy the situation by filing the correct paperwork.

The development led to the federal authorities becoming involved which resulted in a $500,000 settlement that is tied to a non-prosecution agreement.