Melbourne based Crown Casino Resorts has been reported to fail the money laundering probe launched by the New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA).
The ILGA had conducted a detailed inquiry in order to ascertain whether the Crown groups has complied with the anti money laundering requirements and declared that the group had failed the inquiry.
Crown’s former boss John Alexander had earlier asserted that the resort has received ‘gold star’ ratings from an independent Anti Money Laundering Expert. However, the AML expert Neil Jeans stated that he did not make any comment as to the gold star ratings of the Crown.
Jeans further stated that he had only worked upon theoretical structure of the AML requirements and had ascertained whether Crown’s design and structure complies with Australia’s Anti Money Laundering laws.
According to Jeans, he had found the Crown group’s structure to be in compliance with the Australia laws and had mentioned the rooms for improvements. He did not, he stated, make any comment as to the gold star ratings nor did he review whether the compliance system works in practice.
While Jeans seems to have limited his liability as an independent expert, an inquiry is now being conducted under former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin in order to determine whether the Crown should be allowed to retain its license.
This inquiry and its results are directly going to have an impact on a new venue worth AUS $2.2 billion that is likely to be inaugurated by the Crown in December this year.
In addition to above allegations, the casino has also been found to be embroiled in organized crime activities off shore such as links to drug trafficking, false market releases and advertisements, money laundering etc.
Gambling Insider reported that the inquiry also confirmed that senior Crown Resorts executives authorized a junior staff member to wire $500,000 to a Melbourne drug trafficker after being told that he was a ‘good friend’ of one of the casino’s junket business partners.
The allegations have also been placed on false advertisements where the Crown Resorts claimed that its business partner was a listed and controlled entity of Hong Kong, which turned out to be untrue in the inquiry.
The probe by the Supreme Court judge has resumed and the resort has not been able to operate since pandemic lock-down.