Earlier today, the Royal Commission in the state of Victoria heard that a former senior executive of Crown Resorts ordered surveillance on a journalist from The Age. At the hearing, it became clear that the surveillance had to be carried out by a private investigator who is a close friend to Craig Walsh, the general manager of security and surveillance at the Australian gambling giant.
The inquiry into the gambling company heard that in April 2016, Mr Walsh asked the former homicide detective, who has not been named for privacy issues, to work with one of the top high-roller junket operators – Tom Zhou – because he needed advice associated with personal security.
As revealed at the hearing, in 2019 Mr Zhou was implicated in extortion, money laundering, links with drug and human traffickers, Chinese government foreign influence operations, and was subjected to a “red notice” from Interpol. At the time of the inquiry, the security contractor explained that he worked for Mr Zhou for almost half a year (5 months), and during this time he assisted him to operate his business associated with attracting affluent Chinese gamblers to Australian casinos to spend millions of dollars there.
The Royal Commission heard that the security contractor remained closely related to Mr Walsh at the time he worked with Mr Zhou. Back in May 2016, he even sent an email containing a surveillance log from a private detective that was following Mark Hawthorne, a journalist at The Age.
Private Contractor Hired to Work with Chinese Junket Operator, Too
As revealed by the contractor, the private detective was engaged by him on behalf of Ishan Ratnam, the then-vice-president of VIP gaming operations at Crown Resorts. Mr Ratnam, who once served as a one-time “special assistant” to James Packer, left the gambling giant in March 2021.
The journalist, who has left The Age, had written a number of stories regarding the involvement of Mr Ratnan in the alleged scheme by Clyde Campbell to rip off Fiat Chrysler.
During the inquiry, it also became clear that the private contractor once required Mr Walsh to act as a referee for Mr Zhou regarding a Sydney property lease. Furthermore, he sent Mr Walsh a text message while at one of the VIP gambling salons of Crown Resorts, sharing that the “Chinatown” junket of Mr Zhou had received bets totalling more than AU$10 billion.
Victoria’s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts heard that on one occasion, the security contractor travelled with Mr Zhou and a group of gamblers to New Zealand. Federal police officers boarded their private jet before departure at Coolangatta airport before departure. The contractor revealed that he handed NZ$24 million in gambling chips at the Auckland casino, and then returned to Australia with NZ$180,000 in cash in a paper bag. Despite all this, the man said he had no suspicions regarding Mr Zhou’s probity until he heard about his arrest in Vanuatu and extradited to his homeland at the beginning of 2020 under allegations of suspected corruption and money laundering.
- Author
Olivia Cole
