Star casino faces public hearings after alleged crime links were revealed
Senior figures from listed gaming giant Star Entertainment will be grilled at public hearings into allegations the company failed to prevent organised criminals and money launderers infiltrating its Australian casinos.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have confirmed that senior barrister Adam Bell, SC, whose exhaustive public examination last year of Star’s main rival, Crown Resorts, led to Crown being declared an unfit company to hold a gaming licence in NSW, will examine Star’s operations at public hearings next March.
Under investigation: The Star Sydney. Credit:Bloomberg
The hearings are likely to involve Star Entertainment executives, including chief executive Matt Bekier, and board members being summoned to answer questions about their knowledge and management of money laundering risks within the casino group.
Earlier this month, The Age, the Herald and 60 Minutes exposed how Star Entertainment may have enabled suspected money laundering and organised crime within its Australian casinos. The reports also revealed how Mr Bekier and Star chairman John O’Neill were warned in 2018 that Star’s anti-money-laundering controls were failing.
The media reports also detailed concerns, including those raised by federal independent MP Andrew Wilkie, that a planned routine five-year review of The Star Sydney’s casino licence would be held behind closed doors.
After the reports, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, who is in charge of gaming regulation in the state, said he backed a public inquiry into Star.
Star Entertainment has been inviting in many of the same people as Crown did.Credit:
The NSW gaming regulator, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority, has now backed a proposal by its lead independent investigator, Mr Bell, to hold public hearings. The hearings will form part of the ongoing Australia-wide overhaul of the casino sector triggered by a media exposé of Crown Resorts in 2019, which led to subsequent public inquiries into Crown and its major shareholder, James Packer, in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.
The planned public hearings into Star will examine the allegations detailed in the media reports, including the contents of two confidential KPMG inquiries presented to Mr Bekier and other senior executives and directors in May 2018. The inquiries found Star “may not be adequately detecting customers” engaged in money laundering and had “inadequate resourcing in place” to combat criminal infiltration.
The public hearings are a major blow to Star, which has sought to position itself as the cleanskin of Australia’s gaming sector after Crown’s reputation was shredded by Mr Bell at the NSW Bergin inquiry.
Crown’s initial failure to remove executives and board members who had overseen years of sub-standard anti-money laundering controls, and its decision to publicly play down allegations of money laundering failures, led to the company’s later savaging by the Bergini inquiry and counsel assisting Victoria’s royal commission into Crown, Adrian Finanzio, SC.
Star Entertainment CEO Matt Bekier.Credit:James Alcock
In statements recently released to the Australian stock exchange, Star Entertainment told shareholders it would confidentially address the media allegations, some which it described as misleading, with regulators and law enforcement authorities. The company also insisted it had acted on the recommendations of the KPMG reports by adopting an updated anti-money laundering and counter-terror-financing program “as a priority in October 2018, and undertaking a program of work to enhance its … compliance framework, under the board’s oversight”.
Over the past fortnight, this masthead has also revealed how anti-money laundering agency Austrac had obtained internal Star reports that reveal how the listed gaming giant failed to confront money laundering and terrorist financing risks in its Sydney and Queensland casinos.
It was also revealed that Star casino’s high-roller gaming manager, Mark Walker, maintained a secret and longstanding relationship with accused corporate criminal Michael Gu while the gambler allegedly laundered millions of dollars through Australian casinos.
NSW police also recently alleged in court documents that a suspected large-scale drug trafficker, Mende Trajkoski, was until this year a Star high roller who turned over up to $175 million at Star’s Sydney casino over 14 years, despite earning a minimal income. Mr Trajkoski is one of several Star high rollers involved in alleged organised crime and whose gambling activity raised significant red flags which Star may have ignored.
Star’s board, including chairman John O’Neill and CEO Mr Bekier, has not responded to detailed questions about what action, if any, Star has taken in response to revelations about Mr Walker’s conduct, as well as separate revelations that Star permitted Chinese high rollers to access hundreds of millions of dollars in funds in a manner that raised serious anti-money laundering concerns. Star and its board have also declined to respond in detail to questions about alleged criminal infiltration of its casinos, citing privacy concerns.
Last week, Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman also confirmed the state’s gaming regulator, the police and Austrac were investigating allegations relating to Star, which has casinos in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, saying allegations about the company ignoring risk warnings were serious.
The revelations about Star Entertainment in the media wiped more than 23 per cent, or $1 billion, off its market value in two days, although the share price began recovering soon afterwards as the company sought to play down the revelations.
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