In what might be an Ocean's Eleven kind of scenario, a casino at South Korea’s Jeju island reportedly lost $13 million last week and the police are now on the lookout for an employee.
According to a report by Yonhap agency, the incident took place in Landing Casino at Jeju Shinhwa World, one of South Korea's largest integrated resorts, on January 4, 2021. The Landing International Development Ltd is a Hong Kong-based organisation. In its statement, the organisation disclosed that it was unable to track an employee who was in charge of the casino funds.
The police are on the lookout for the employee who, according to the news agency, is a Malaysian woman. The Jeju police have secured CCTV camera footage from the Landing casino. However, the police have discovered that video recordings from the time of the cash robbery were erased.
With a large amount of cash that went missing from the casino, police suspects that it was not just one woman who was involved in the robbery. The authorities suspect that there are at least two or three more people involved in the planning and execution of this large-scale theft, since the missing cash is too heavy for one person to carry.
The report further added that experts suspect if all the stolen cash were 50,000 Won bills, the number of currency sheets amounts to 2,91,200. It is further estimated that as many as 12.1 apple boxes are needed to carry that kind of cash around and all the banknotes weigh more than 280 kilograms.
Hence, the police investigators say they are leaving all possibilities open, because it is difficult to transport the huge amount of cash out of the country through airports or ports alone, reported the news agency.
Since the money went missing, Landing’s shares in Hong Kong plunged 7.6% to a record low on Monday before rebounding 6.4% on Tuesday, reported Bloomberg. The Malaysian national who was in charge of funds at the Landing Casino at Jeju Island did not come back after she left for holidays later in December 2020.
Jeju is one of the most popular tourist destinations in South Korea. It is an island situated near the southern coast of South Korea. The island also has a volcanic landscape of craters.
One of the most famous volcanic landscapes in Jeju is at Hallasan Mountain which is a dormant volcano. Tourists indulge in hiking trails around the crater lake at the 1,950m summit and also visit Gwaneumsa Temple known for its scenic views.