Australian businessman and investor James Packer has reached a settlement of a long-time legal dispute with a former security guard who claimed that the mogul threatened and assaulted him at Crown Casino on January 1st, 2016.
The former employee of the casino, Iskandar Chaban, has also identified his then-employer, MSS Security, and Crown Resorts as defendants in a civil lawsuit filed in Victoria’s Supreme Court in 2020. However, the legal action was resolved on a “no-admissions basis” only a day before it was scheduled to go to trial in November 2022. At the time, Mr Chaban received a confidential settlement worth over AU$100,000. His legal costs were also covered.
According to the former security guard’s claims, he had not recognised the ex-executive chairman of Crown Resorts at the time he approached Crown Towers Melbourne’s main gaming floor with senior colleague Ishan Ratnam. Mr Chaban claimed that he thought Packer may have been intoxicated at the time. Court documents read that the former billionaire investor of Crown Resorts had become verbally and physically abusive. He started threatening the plaintiff, ran towards him and pushed him in the chest several times.
The former security guard also claimed that Mr Packer had also verbally threatened the plaintiff, saying that he would throw him out of his job. According to his court claims, he was then brought to an office where four Crown Resorts’ managers humiliated, intimidated, abused, and bullied him before he was escorted to Southern Cross Station. Later, the then-60-year-old Mr Chaban was taken to Northern Hospital suffering some back and neck injuries. According to law firm Carbone Lawyers, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of James Packer’s and other Crown Resorts managers’ actions.
Crown Resorts Once Attached Little Importance to the 2016 Incident with the Security Guard
Reportedly, John Karantzis, a partner at Carbone Lawyers, explained that he could not discuss the recent settlement between James Packer and the former Crown Casino Melbourne’s security guard because it was subject to a non-disclosure agreement but shared that his client was pleased with the outcome.
At the time of the alleged disagreement in 2016, the incident had been downplayed as a minor one by Crown Resorts which described it simply as a “misunderstanding”. The Australian gambling giants also claimed that it had tried to inform the plaintiff that one of the most important VIPs for the company was approaching the casino’s gaming floor but the security guard still did not manage to recognise Mr Packer. In December 2020, a spokesman for the billionaire rejected the allegations.
Now, a spokesperson for Crown Resorts confirmed that the legal dispute had been resolved on confidential, no admission of liability terms. Consolidated Press Holdings, the family company of Mr Packer has not responded to local media hubs’ requests for comment. Geoff Alcock, the managing director of MSS Security, also refused to comment on the situation.
In 2022, James Packer finally put an end to his 20-year association with Crown Resorts by disposing of his 37% stake in the Australian gambling giant by selling it to Blackstone, a US private equity firm, in return for more than AU$3.3 billion. As Casino Guardian reported at the time, the sale of the casino company followed a string of probity failures that the New South Wales (NSW) Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority and a Victoria royal commission into the operation of Crown Melbourne uncovered. Since then, the company has faced similar probes across the entire country, with allegations of links to criminal organisations, facilitating money laundering, poor corporate structure and management being unveiled.
- Author
Olivia Cole
