Bundles of filthy Korean gambling cash ‘on the nose’

CASINO staff thought something was fishy when a Korean high roller gave them $3.6 million in smelly, mouldy cash, a court has been told.

THE $3.6 million in dirty cash handed to casino staff by a Korean high roller smelt musty and was covered in mould, suggesting it had not been stored in a bank, a court has been told.

The cash was vacuum sealed and casino cashier staff noted that rubber bands holding each $10,000 bundle of notes together were partially disintegrated, according to an Australian Federal Police statement tendered to the Brisbane Supreme Court.

Married father of two Byongsam Song, 43, has been charged with dealing with property reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of crime over $3.6 million he dealt with at the Star City casino on the Gold Coast on May 2 and 3. He intends to plead not guilty.

Song told the AFP that his boss, Gold Coast millionaire Wan Il Choi, 41, paid for and organised his gambling trip.

The Star City casino on the Gold Coast, where, on May 2 and 3, Byongsam Song allegedly dealt with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

He said he ran a cosmetics company in Seoul owned by Choi. Police are also investigating Mr Choi, who exports meat and lamb to Korea and is expanding into fish.

No charges have been laid against Mr Choi, but the AFP alleges the $500,000 in cash that he deposited into his casino patron account on May 1 was also “smelly, musty, with rubber bands that were disintegrating” and, like Song’s cash, was also in bundles of $10,000.

Song told police the cash was brought to his room in suitcases by a man he had never met before called Nicholas Losurdo, 37.

Song has been released on $200,000 bail put up by Mr Choi’s wife, Eun Jung Jung. He will live with the pair at their $1 million home at Benowa on the Gold Coast.

Ms Jung told the court she had $2.92 million in cash in her Commonwealth Bank account, and Mr Choi told the court he had about $3 million in working capital and cash in Australia to finance his plans for a 5000-head feedlot operation and an aquaculture farm.

Mr Choi told the court he was an Australian resident on a Significant Investor visa.