Big Bola, a Mexico-based casino company, might be guilty of money laundering, the authorities claim. The National Banking and Securities Commission recently blocked the operator’s bank accounts, preventing it from accessing its funds.
Big Bola’s Bank Accounts Were Temporarily Suspended
The Mexican authorities have had suspicions about Big Bola and its owners for over a decade. According to the federals, the casino chain’s owners Óscar Rodríguez Borgio and Francisco Javier Rodríguez Borgio might have repeatedly allowed money laundering to take place in their venues.
The company’s alleged ties with money laundering groups forced Mexico’s National Banking and Securities Commission to block 55 Big Bola-related bank accounts. The judge refused to immediately release the accounts when Big Bola tried to protest against the decision. He might have already released the accounts, though, as recent reports claim that Big Bola is no longer blocked.
This isn’t the only shady deal the Rodríguez Borgio brothers have been involved with. Other allegations against the brothers include the alleged sale of stolen fuel at Rodríguez Borgio-owned gas stations and the questionable sale of Gallos de Querétaro, a local soccer team. Additionally, in 2018 Big Bola was guilty of not paying $7.3 million of special benefits on bets. This led to the company receiving a fine of almost $30 million.
The Rodríguez Borgio Brothers Have Been Involved with Controversies
Because of the alleged unsavory dealings, the owners have been involved in, Francisco Javier has been on the Financial Intelligence Unit’s blocked list for almost a year now.
Earlier reports from a Mexican magazine go as far as to claim that Francisco Javier participated in an assassination plot. The 2020 article claimed that the Big Bola owner wanted José Guillermo Martínez Cárdenas and Lorenzo Sánchez Hidalgo, two competitor Spanish businessmen, murdered.
According to the article, the men that Francisco Javier wanted dead were fraudsters who scammed him in an earlier property sale. While the alleged assassination plot never came to fruition, Martínez Cárdenas was eventually arrested by Interpol and brought to justice. It is still uncertain whether the assassination story was true. Some believe it is a fabrication meant to slander the brothers in the wake of their trouble with the law.
Big Bola is the name behind 20 casinos across the country. For the last few years, the operator has been running an iGaming business as well. A year ago, the casino group inked deal with Betsson, agreeing to launch Betsson Mexico. The new brand took it upon itself to offer the real Betsson experience to Mexican bettors.