{"id":189389,"date":"2021-10-19T07:58:58","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T14:58:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=189389"},"modified":"2021-10-19T10:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T17:44:23","slug":"star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Entertainment to Face Public Grilling on Anti-Money Laundering Failures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Star Entertainment will face a public inquiry in the state of New South Wales (NSW) into allegations it permitted its Sydney property to be infiltrated by organized crime.<\/p>\n

\"Star
New South Wales Police arrest suspected drug trafficker Mende Rajkoski, formerly the Star Sydney\u2019s biggest slots player. (Image: New South Wales Police Force)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company\u2019s shares plunged by almost 23 percent<\/a> a week ago. That’s following damning reports in Australian media that claimed it had \u201cenabled money laundering.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sydney Morning Herald<\/em> reports that senior barrister Adam Bell, SC, will lead the review. That\u2019s bad news for Star. Bell\u2019s in-depth grilling of Crown Resorts\u2019 operations last year under similar circumstances ultimately led to the revocation of the operator\u2019s NSW gaming license.<\/p>\n

Suppressed Report Denial<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Bell is expected to cross-examine Star Entertainment executives, including CEO Matt Bekier, to find out how much they knew about the company\u2019s alleged anti-money laundering (AML) failings.<\/p>\n

The existence of a 2018 internal report compiled by auditor KPMG that heavily criticized Star\u2019s AML and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) protocols may create some difficult questions for Star\u2019s board members.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s media stories claim the report was ignored and buried. In an official statement last Tuesday, Star called this \u201cincorrect,\u201d and said the report\u2019s findings have been actioned.<\/p>\n

$77M Slots Session<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Media allegations against the company include that it allowed Chinese high rollers to access hundreds of millions of dollars using a system that raised serious AML concerns. The VIP guests were permitted to withdraw funds for gambling that were disguised as hotel expenses.<\/p>\n

\n

Star is accused of putting profits before compliance by failing to properly vet hundreds of high rollers, some of whom were high-level criminals.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

These include Mende Rajkoski, who until recently was the biggest slots player at the Star Sydney. He once gambled $US77 million on the machines in one week, despite having a minimal income.<\/p>\n

In June, Rajkoski was arrested for attempting to import three tons of cocaine with a street value of US$700 million into Australia.<\/p>\n

Rogues\u2019 Gallery<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Other former regulars include Tom Zhou, aka \u201cMr Chinatown,\u201d a Chinese crime boss wanted by Interpol, and suspected sex trafficker and money launderer Simon Pan. Also on the list is Huang Xiangmo, who was labeled a \u201cforeign influence agent\u201d by the Australian government and expelled from the country as a national security risk.<\/p>\n

\n

Meanwhile, the Herald<\/em> alleges that Star\u2019s senior vice president of VIP gaming, Mark Walker, \u201cmaintained a secret and longstanding relationship\u201d with alleged corporate fraudster Michael Gu.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Gu is a fugitive<\/a> from justice after disappearing with US$245 million of his investors\u2019 money.<\/p>\n

Star is now facing possible class-action lawsuits from investors after around US$740 million was wiped off its market value when it\u2019s shares crashed last week.<\/p>\n

It is also being probed by Australia\u2019s financial crimes unit, AUSTRAC, and is expected to face severe financial penalties once that investigation is completed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s Star Entertainment will face a public inquiry in the state of New South Wales (NSW) into allegations it permitted its Sydney property to be infiltrated by organized crime. The company\u2019s shares plunged by almost 23 percent a week ago. That’s following damning reports in Australian media that claimed it had \u201cenabled money laundering.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":189391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13592],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nStar Entertainment Faces Public Grilling on Anti-Money Laundering Fail<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Star Entertainment will face a public inquiry into allegations that it \u201cenabled money laundering and was infiltrated by organized crime.\" \/>\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\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Entertainment Faces Public Grilling on Anti-Money Laundering Fail\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Star Entertainment will face a public inquiry into allegations that it \u201cenabled money laundering and was infiltrated by organized crime.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/\" \/>\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=\"2021-10-19T14:58:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-19T17:44:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mende-r.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/\",\"name\":\"Star Entertainment Faces Public Grilling on Anti-Money Laundering Fail\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mende-r.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-19T14:58:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-19T17:44:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Star Entertainment will face a public inquiry into allegations that it \u201cenabled money laundering and was infiltrated by organized crime.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/star-entertainment-faces-public-grilling-on-anti-money-laundering-fail\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mende-r.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/mende-r.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":720,\"caption\":\"New South Wales Police arrest suspected drugs trafficker Mende Rajkoski, formerly the Star Sydney\u2019s biggest slots player. 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