{"id":151474,"date":"2020-10-07T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T22:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=151474"},"modified":"2020-10-07T16:42:22","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T23:42:22","slug":"james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"James Packer Grilled About Imprisonment of Crown Resorts Staff in China, Won\u2019t Accept Full Blame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billionaire James Packer said Wednesday he was not aware that Crown staff were living in fear in China prior to their arrest and subsequent imprisonment for \u201cgambling crimes\u201d in 2016.<\/p>\n

\"James
A monosyllabic and clearly uncomfortable James Packer squirmed through the hearing on his superyacht via video link on Wednesday. (Image: Screengrabs via The Australian)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Packer was giving evidence for the second day<\/a> at a licensing suitability inquiry in Sydney via video link from his superyacht somewhere in the Pacific. He was being quizzed about why the company ignored warnings about China, specifically those of Michael Chen, Crown\u2019s then-president of international marketing.<\/p>\n

Chen told the board in March 2015 that the China team was \u201cin constant fear of getting tapped on the shoulder,\u201d and that China was \u201ca risky place to be for all our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ethical Failures?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The imprisonment of 19 Crown Resorts staff for marketing the company\u2019s services in China, where gambling is illegal, was a national scandal in Australia, and severely embarrassed Crown.<\/p>\n

The operator was forced to completely reevaluate its marketing strategy in the region and rein in its international expansion plans to reduce exposure to the Chinese market.<\/p>\n

Packer was asked if \u201cethical failures\u201d were responsible for the disastrous VIP program, which was instituted when he was executive chairman of the company. He resigned as chairman in 2015, only to rejoin in 2017 and resign again in 2018, citing mental health problems. He remains the majority shareholder in Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI accept some, but not all [blame],\u201d Packer replied.<\/p>\n

\n

When he asked who he did blame for letting down staff he named Robert Rankin, who took over his position as chairman in 2015, and Rowen Craigie, who was CEO at the time of the arrests. Rankin was supposed to be \u201ca China specialist,\u201d Packer explained.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Didn\u2019t Consider Stanley Ho Ban<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was then put to Packer that he held more influence over the Crown board than was proper after he exited the company.<\/p>\n

The billionaire admitted that he often sent instructions to the board via emails, which were always acted upon, and that he was party to privileged information, despite no longer holding a role within the company.<\/p>\n

This matters because the Crown board was unaware of the sale of Packer\u2019s 19.9 percent of Crown to Lawrence Ho\u2019s Melco Resorts until it had been agreed between the two parties. The inquiry is concerned about conflict of interest and even insider trading<\/a> in respect to the share sale.<\/p>\n

\n

Packer was also asked whether he considered that a sale to Melco might be problematic, considering that Ho\u2019s recently deceased father, Stanley Ho, was barred from having an interest in the Crown Sydney project because of alleged triad connections.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Packer replied that he didn\u2019t give it \u201cany thought at all,\u201d adding that he had \u201cforgotten\u201d about the clauses blackballing Stanley Ho, who had been extremely frail for many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI regarded Melco as Lawrence\u2019s company rather than Stanley\u2019s,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Packer will continue his testimony tomorrow, when he is expected to be grilled about the junket operations and possible money laundering at Crown properties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billionaire James Packer said Wednesday he was not aware that Crown staff were living in fear in China prior to their arrest and subsequent imprisonment for \u201cgambling crimes\u201d in 2016. Packer was giving evidence for the second day at a licensing suitability inquiry in Sydney via video link from his superyacht somewhere in the Pacific. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":151476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJames Packer Grilled About Imprisonment of Crown Resorts Staff in China<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Packer says Crown Resorts China arrests weren\u2019t completely his fault and that he didn\u2019t think about Stanley Ho in Melco deal.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"James Packer Grilled About Imprisonment of Crown Resorts Staff in China\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"James Packer says Crown Resorts China arrests weren\u2019t completely his fault and that he didn\u2019t think about Stanley Ho in Melco deal.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-07T22:30:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-07T23:42:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/packer-drilled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"678\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/\",\"name\":\"James Packer Grilled About Imprisonment of Crown Resorts Staff in China\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/packer-drilled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-07T22:30:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-07T23:42:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"James Packer says Crown Resorts China arrests weren\u2019t completely his fault and that he didn\u2019t think about Stanley Ho in Melco deal.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/james-packer-grilled-about-imprisonment-of-crown-resorts-staff-in-china\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/packer-drilled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/packer-drilled.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":678,\"caption\":\"A monosyllabic and clearly uncomfortable James Packer squirmed through the hearing on his superyacht via video link on Wednesday. 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