The chief legal officer of Crown Resorts, one of the biggest entertainment groups in Australia, unveiled during a public inquiry that the gambling company’s anti-money laundering department failed to monitor adequately two suspicious bank accounts. The inquiry in question was conducted yesterday by the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority of New South Wales.
The Australian Commonwealth Bank and the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) blocked the accounts of the two Crown customers once they noticed several suspicious money transfers have been processed. The transactions totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Joshua Preston, the gaming giant’s chief legal officer, renounced the statements he made on July 31. At the time, the legal offer claimed that both accounts were examined by the anti-money laundering departments of Crown’s Melbourne and Perth outfits. Mr Preston claimed the departments would have warned the Australian anti-money laundering watchdog, AUSTRAC, for any suspicious cash transfers.
Contrary to his earlier statements, the legal officer also said that the gambling giant was not bound by law to report cash transfers to customers’ accounts if they exceed a given threshold. Nonetheless, the legal officer admitted that the company was still required to submit reports to AUSTRAC for suspicious activities.
The Suspicious Accounts Belong to Shell Companies
The accounts in question belong to two dormant companies, Riverbank Investments and Southbank Investments, that were created by the entertainment group itself. Patrons of the gambling operator could use them for depositing gambling funds privately. The unrelated company names did not give away the fact they were depositing to a casino. However, this also made them more vulnerable to the attacks of fraudsters, it was established during the public inquiry.
Said inquiry is aimed at determining whether Crown should have the license for its new gaming venue revoked. The new casino is expected to launch its operations at the end of 2020 in Barangaroo, an area in central Sydney. The probe was launched after reports surfaced claiming the Australian entertainment group worked with junket operators, connected with organised crime groups from Macau and Hong Kong.
Steve Vickers, the former commander of the Criminal Intelligence Bureau of the Royal Hong Kong Police also spoke during yesterday’s inquiry. According to Mr Vickers, it is not possible to keep the Chinese organised crime groups out of the junket sector because of the strict anti-gambling legislation in China.
The country also imposes restrictions on the amounts of cash the locals are permitted to take across its borders. This, combined with the fact gambling-related debts are hard to enforce in the country, is the underlying reason for the existence of organised crime syndicates like the Triads, Mr Vickers said.
Despite this, the former commander of Hong Kong’s Central Intelligence Bureau insisted that adequate regulations can reduce the influence such organised crime syndicates have over the gambling industry. Mr Vickers gave Singapore as an example. The Singaporean gambling watchdog researches with extra diligence all junket operators casinos seek to work with.
By contrast, Australian gambling operators, like New South Wales’ Crown Resorts and Victoria’s The Star, choose their junkets themselves after researching them to see whether they comply with the framework of state regulatory watchdogs.
- Author
Olivia Cole
