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The alleged head of a major online gambling and cyber-scamming network facing human trafficking and money laundering charges in the Philippines is using a company in Cyprus to store more than $2m, according to a media report.
Huang Zhiyang, a Chinese, Cypriot and St. Kitts and Nevis national now wanted by the Philippine authorities, invested some €2m ($2.1m) in real-estate development firm Zimaco Holdings to qualify for Cypriot citizenship, according to a joint investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Project (OCCRP), the Cyprus Investigative Reporting Network (CIReN) and Philippine media outlet Rappler.
Huang then used his Cypriot passport in May 2019 to form Baofu Land Development, a company later implicated in human trafficking and other offences at various properties raided by the Philippine authorities.
A key raid last March, targeting a Baofu-linked property in Tarlac Province, north of Clark Freeport, led to the rescue of almost 900 enslaved workers and the undoing of a brazen Chinese syndicate with enormous local influence.
This, in turn, helped expose key Chinese players such as local mayor and Baofu investor Alice Guo, who faked her Philippine nationality to amass enormous wealth amid corruption of local police and civil servants.
Justice department assistant secretary Mico Clavano told reporters on Wednesday (January 15) that Guo is facing 62 counts of money laundering along with 30 other suspects, including family members.
Guo also faces human trafficking, graft and material misrepresentation prosecutions in other cases.
Two of Guo’s fellow Baofu partners were jailed last year in Singapore along with other defendants in the largest money laundering prosecution in that nation’s history.
Even against the Philippines’ dismal record on corruption, the Tarlac scandal so disturbed the public, politicians and even national security observers that it played a driving role in triggering a presidential ban on foreign-facing online gambling operations (POGOs).
Huang has been a fugitive in the Philippines since being charged in August and September, as well as in China where he is reportedly wanted for gambling offences, but his whereabouts remain unknown.
Baofu Land Development has been described by the Philippine Anti-Money Laundering Council as the “mother corporation” of scam activities at the Tarlac property, one of whose operators had been a POGO licensee under the watch of gambling regulator PAGCOR.
The Tarlac raid was at least the third to implicate Huang, following raids in Clark Freeport itself in May 2023 and at the same Tarlac property now linked to his network.
The OCCRP/CIReN/Rappler report said the Philippine authorities were not aware of Huang’s investment in Cyprus until its authors presented evidence to the justice department, which may move to recover the money.
“It's a possibility, but that would entail going through court processes of Cyprus,” the report quoted justice department undersecretary Nicholas Ty as saying.
“[The] priority remains … his arrest via a Red Notice” through Interpol, Ty said.
The report said Cypriot anti-money laundering officials would welcome communications with the Philippines on the matter, but added that the funds at Zimaco have not been frozen by Cyprus’ Financial Intelligence Unit (MOKAS).
