Blaming a few bad apples for corporate misconduct is the oldest trick in the book. But when former chief executive Matt Bekier took to the virtual witness box at The Star Entertainment inquiry, he laid the blame for the casino group’s woes on a bad orchard.
Bekier told inquiry head Adam Bell and counsel assisting Naomi Sharp that the company’s VIP division – home to Star’s scandalous relationship with junket operators and the infamous China Union Pay scheme Star used to disguise gambling transactions as hotel bills – had a problematic subculture. That subculture practised “the dark art of acquiring customers, to convince them to fly long-range and gamble in our casinos, then finding a way to entertain them and then settle and collect the money”, he said.
