Outgoing Star Entertainment chairman John O’Neill gave select investors private briefings to share information not disclosed to the wider market following explosive media allegations about money laundering at the company’s Sydney casino last year, in a move he said he had hoped would improve the share price.

Giving evidence to the NSW inquiry that has cost him and most of his colleagues their jobs, Mr O’Neill also said Star’s board approved two allegedly misleading ASX statements dismissing the media reports because it was under “stress” to comment as “there had been a lot of negative publicity [and] the share price was under pressure”.