Crown casino's 'Mr Chinatown' arrested and deported to China

Friday 7th February 2020

The Crown casino high-roller and junket partner known as "Mr Chinatown" - who is also a business partner of the Chinese president's nephew - has been arrested and extradited to China for suspected money laundering and corruption.

Crown Resorts regarded Tom Zhou as a "very, very important person" and paid him tens of millions of dollars to lure high-rollers from China to Australia even though he was implicated in foreign influence operations, extortion, money laundering and had associations with drug and human traffickers.

Zhou was detained in Vanuatu late last year but then flew to Japan and onto Fiji where he was detained again before being deported to China earlier this year as part of a longstanding international "red notice" arrest warrant. Fiji police confirmed on Friday that Zhou, a dual Australian and Chinese citizen, was held by immigration authorities before being flown to China.

His dramatic detention comes as his multi-million dollar gambling empire in Australia -- built on the back of his dealings with Crown -- is collapsing due to media attention and investigations by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. His arrest has also been noted by the Five Eyes intelligence community, sources said, and senior ministers had also been briefed, a source in Canberra confirmed.