A former executive of Star Entertainment has informed investigators that the company’s chief executive officer Matt Bekier was angry and concerned over a report regarding the gambling operator’s money-laundering controls and claimed that the report was not accurate.
This week, the Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) is probing whether Star Entertainment is fit to keep its operating licence for its casino in Pyrmont. The beginning of the week saw the investigators go through a 2018 review of KPMG, which found the risk assessment that was used by the casino to identify possible terrorism financing and money laundering activities was not effective enough.
On March 22nd, Paul McWilliams, who was once the chief risk officer at the company, gave evidence as part of the ongoing probe. He recalled a tense meeting of the audit committee back in 2018 and said that back then Mr Bekier put the factual accuracy of the findings presented by KPMG under question. McWilliams shared that at the time, the company’s CEO was extremely frustrated and a large part of the discussion included talks that it had been unacceptable for the report to be prepared in the way. Mr Bekier also claimed that the report had been wrong in some material respects.
As revealed by the former Star Entertainment executive, during the 2018 meeting he felt a lot of pressure on him and Tarnya O’Neil, head of the internal audit in the company. He also shared that, after the meeting, he had been satisfied that no fundamental errors had been found in the report, and it was confirmed that the report had been final, although the non-executive director Richard Sheppard asked whether some amendments could have been brought to it.
Former Star Entertainment Insider Says Matt Bekier Behaved Unprofessionally
Mr McWilliams revealed there was another meeting, at which both Mr Bekier and KPMG representatives were equally tense because the Australian gambling company’s CEO behaved unprofessionally. He recalled it had been a difficult meeting because of Mr Bekier’s unprofessional demeanour to bring third parties to address his concerns.
At the time, the company explained that the meeting had been held in order to get the CEO to identify his specific concerns regarding the situation. McWilliams also shared that Mr Bekier had not actually engaged very well in articulating what the issues had been, in his opinion.
As heard during the investigation, people carrying large amounts of money were not automatically considered potentially involved in money laundering. When asked by Casper Conde, the counsel assisting the probe, whether he agreed that such people actually raised concerns about money laundering, Mr McWilliams said he thought so. He also agreed that some fundamental deficits in the program had been found.
The investigation found that the competent authorities did not carry out any money laundering or terrorism financing risk assessments on junkets, as so-called junket operators are also known. Mr McWilliams confirmed that junkets are associated with a higher risk for money laundering occurrence because they are normally involved with high spenders, whose source of wealth is not always easy to identify.
- Author
Olivia Cole
