A trio of allied egaming companies that were raided by police this year as a part of an international money laundering inquiry have been placed into liquidation.

Deemster John Needham said it was ‘just and equitable’ for Ableton Prestige Global Ltd, Aperia (IoM) Ltd and Amiga Entertainment Ltd to be wound up.

Adrian Hyde and Andrew Paul Shimmin have been appointed provisional liquidators and deemed official receivers.

The civil court also appointed a receiver for allied corporate trust Abundance Ltd.

Police executed a search warrant at the offices of Ableton, Aperia and Amiga on Ridgeway Street, Douglas, in March this year in relation to what the Constabulary described as a ‘large-scale international money laundering investigation’.

Two people were arrested and released on police bail.

It has been reported that following the raids, dozens of Chinese nationals working for Ableton and Amiga had their visas revoked.

The court heard that neither the companies nor their employees had made any admission of wrong doing.

But they said their ability to trade had been curtailed due to the companies’ assets in the Isle of Man being restrained, and they had therefore applied to the court for a winding up order.

Deemster Needham said the circumstances regarding the winding up were ‘rather unusual’.

The court heard that three companies formed a joint structure with Ableton at the top of the group in a trust beneficially owned by Zhi Chen and his wife Li Caiyun.

Chinese national Zhi Chen is head of the Cambodian-based Prince Group.

The court heard that Abundance was purely a commercial trust with no assets, and it would not be appropriate for it to be wound up. Instead it applied for the court to appoint a receiver.

Deemster Needham said it was appropriate to grant the orders sought, bearing in mind that they were not opposed.