When the head of Spanish gaming company CIRSA travels he is apparently accustomed to do so with ample small change to cover all eventualities. Manuel Lao was one of three CIRSA executives and four crew members detained when a private jet landed in Buenos Aires carrying €500,000 (US$657,925) in cash that had not been declared. According to a statement from Casino de Buenos Aires, the CIRSA subsidiary that owns and operates the two floating casinos in the Argentinean capital, the money was mistakenly unloaded from the aeroplane and had not been intended for use in Argentina.

Describing the money as emergency funds for any conceivable necessity such as illness or security, the company expressed surprise that it should be considered at all odd for wealthy people to travel with large sums in cash. As most international travellers would opt for US dollars to cover unexpected eventualities, particularly in the dollar economies of South America, it is understandable why questions are being asked. It is also easy for wealthy travellers to arrange unexpected payments without the risk of carrying large sums of cash. There can be few countries these days where ‘banking difficulties’ would make the carrying of cash imperative for a large company, and Argentina is not one of them.

When the Customs department brought the case to the attention of the sitting criminal court it was decided that the mere possession of cash did not constitute a crime. The company gave assurances that the Euros had been duly declared in Spain before being taken aboard for the flight to Buenos Aires. The whole episode may diminish into ‘a storm in a teacup’ but at the moment the local media and web blogs are having a field day. The Customs department at the Aeroparque Metropolitano, where the jet landed, previously reported the undeclared money to the UIF (Financial Information Unit) as possible money laundering activity.

It could be said that Spanish gaming companies are having a bad year in the southern tip of South America. CIRSA previously lost all its court cases for its casino projects in Chile, and CODERE caused a storm when it refused to pay a US$11 million jackpot awarded by a malfunctioning slot machine in Argentina. In the bitter contest for the new Chilean casino licences, CIRSA was accused by the lawyer of rival Chilean gaming company Enjoy as being similar to Aerocontinente, a company condemned for money laundering and drug dealing. The accusation was strongly rebutted by CIRSA’s lawyer. (E-12.19.06)

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