Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted 10 people accused of operating a cross-border money laundering network that used Macau casinos and credit cards to launder more than $1 billion in funds, according to an Inside Asian Gaming report.

The Yunlin District Prosecutors Office said it broke up the operation after intelligence from Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau indicated that a criminal group had recruited large numbers of money launderers to move illicit funds through Macau using a highly organized cross-border system, IAG reported.

The group, comprised mostly people aged between 35 and 40, gathered illegal funds from mainland China, converted them into cash or bank transfers, and used nominee accounts to conceal the origin of the money, according to the indictments cited by IAG. Those funds were then deposited into the accounts of designated money launderers and used to prepay credit card fees, allowing unusually high spending limits to be created.

The launderers then traveled to Macau, used the credit cards to buy casino chips, gambled only briefly, and converted the chips back into cash, creating the appearance of legitimate gambling winnings earned in Macau, the news outlet said.

The prosecutors office said the investigation identified NT$278.3 billion, or about $8.66 billion, in laundered funds handled by the various operatives, according to IAG. Investigators found that NT$33.1 billion, or about $1.03 billion, had been transferred into Taiwan. 

“The amount of money involved was enormous, seriously endangering Taiwan’s financial order,” authorities said, according to the report.

Read more at Inside Asian Gaming