Suspended sentence for family who wanted to convert part of €72,000 in cash at Monte-Carlo Casino

On 29 August this year, a man, his partner and his son were arrested at the Casino de Monte-Carlo after suspicious behaviour was spotted on the slot machines and reported by the establishment’s security staff. At the time of their arrest, the three suspects were carrying almost €72,000 in undeclared cash, which they intended to convert into high-denomination banknotes. The Criminal Court of Monaco delivered its verdict on Friday 6 September.

Thursday 29 August was all set to be a perfect day for this family from Cuneo, Italy. The father, who runs several businesses including an ice-cream and chocolate shop on rue Princesse Caroline in Monaco, decided to take his son, aged 20, and his partner, 32, to see Cristiano Ronaldo at the Champions League draw and to do a little shopping before the ceremony.

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The 48-year old man generously gave each of them a bundle of €15,000 to treat themselves in the Principality. However, he felt that the bundles were made up of small denominations (20 and 50 euro notes), too small to buy anything in a luxury boutique “without being embarrassed,” he explained during his hearing.

The father therefore decided to make a detour and convert the notes into large denominations – €100s, €200s and €500s – at the Casino. When they got inside, the woman complained that she couldn’t close her small handbag because of the bundles and went to the cash desks, where she asked if she could convert the notes. Her request was refused, so the family headed for the slot machines to put their plan into action.

During the security check, the staff had immediately spotted the huge sum of money and kept a close eye on the Italian family. Once in the slots room, the three suspects used a simple technique: bet up to 500 euros (the maximum authorised by the machines without an identity check or player’s card), cancel the wager, ask for a cash refund ticket and then collect larger denominations from the cashiers on the way out. They did this over 30 times in a row, to the tune of between 15 and 18,000 euros.

The supervisor was left in no doubt about their abnormal behaviour, and called the Police Department, while inviting the family to leave the Casino. The couple, the only ones in possession of the refund tickets, were arrested at the exit and immediately taken to the police station for questioning.

Once at the station, the situation was crystal clear: the business owner was arrested with €57,020 on his person and his partner with €14,965, including 24 €200 notes, 115 €100 notes and several hundred €50 notes, for a total of almost €30,000 in high-denomination banknotes.

Undeclared funds and money-laundering through concealment

After a postponement of the immediate hearing for the three defendants, who had clean records, and remand of the father, the family was tried on Friday 6 September. The Court accused them of two offences: failing to declare over €10,000 in cash per person, and laundering the proceeds of an offence amounting to between €15,000 and €18,000.

When the public prosecutor asked why they had so much cash, the business owner replied that the money came from payments by certain traders and customers of his ice cream business, who only wanted to pay in cash. His son and his partner, who also work in the family business, confirmed this.

To the question “Why didn’t you declare all that money when you came to Monaco?” the father replied that he believed the maximum authorised amount to be between 10 and 15,000 euros per person. The other two defendants replied that they did not know the cash had to be declared.

And when the Court President asked why he had tried to convert the money at the Casino rather than in a bank, the man replied that it was difficult to convert money in Italian banks, that it would be easier at the Casino and that his intention had not been to deliberately hide the money.

The judge pointed out that Monte-Carlo Casino no longer pays out high-denomination banknotes, only the same ones that had been played (€20 euros), which are the maximum that a machine will accept. He would never have got the banknotes he wanted.

The Court’s verdict

In his closing arguments the prosecutor requested a 1-month suspended prison sentence as a symbolic punishment for the son, a 4 to 5-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of 50% of the amount confiscated for the man’s partner (approximately €7,000), and finally, a 1-year suspended prison sentence including 1 to 2 months in prison, and a fine of 50% of the sum confiscated for the father (approximately €28,500).

The Monegasque court found the three defendants guilty of all the offences and handed down the following verdicts: a 1-month suspended sentence for the son, a 5-month suspended sentence and a €5,000 fine for the partner and a 15-month suspended sentence plus a €15,000 fine for the father. The Court also ordered all the funds seized to be confiscated.