Star finance boss left after losing ‘faith’ in integrity of CEO Cooke

Star Entertainment’s former chief financial officer Christina Katsibouba said she left the casino operator after losing ‘faith and confidence’ in the integrity of then-CEO Robbie Cooke.

The Star casino in Sydney.

Troubled Star Entertainment Group allegedly put “profit before compliance”, with former top brass fronting an inquiry yesterday to accuse ousted chief executive Robbie Cooke of a lack of integrity, withholding documents and disputing previously agreed decisions with his staff.

Mr Cooke came under consistent criticism during the third day of hearings by Adam Bell SC into Star’s suitability to retain its Sydney casino licence with a series of ex-executives lining up to launch a broadside at their former boss.

Special manager Nicholas Weeks has been running the Star’s Sydney and Queensland casino licences since his appointment in October 2022 by the NSW Independent Casino Commission following an earlier inquiry, also by Mr Bell, found that existing management were unfit to operate a casino licence. Mr Cooke, who joined Star in the same month, had been tasked with the job of rebuilding the company’s reputation.

Star’s former chief customer officer George Hughes told the hearing Star had operated under a culture of “profit before compliance” under Mr Cooke, and despite some improvements following the first Bell inquiry glaring issues remained. That included a policy of sending group messages to high-rollers that disclosed people’s personal mobile phone numbers.

“There are historic practices of sending out text messages with the inclusion of other people’s mobile numbers so multiple guests can see other people’s mobile numbers,” said Mr Hughes. Mr Hughes said he sought a deed of indemnity from the company before leaving because of concerns he could be made personally liable as a “close associate” of the company.

Earlier in the day, Star’s former chief financial officer Christina Katsibouba said she resigned after losing faith in the “integrity” of Mr Cooke while the company’s former top lawyer said she could not continue after Mr Cooke refused to provide copies of correspondence from the regulator.

Ms Katsibouba said Star’s leadership team was “dysfunctional” under Mr Cooke, making her position untenable. “The most important thing for me was the ability and the appetite of the leadership team to discuss and progress an adequate business plan that addressed earnings deterioration and work to reverse that,” said Ms Katsiboubam who left the company last month. “I didn’t think that the team had the ability or the appetite to do that.”

She asaid her working relationship with Mr Cooke and the board deteriorated to the point where she lost faith and confidence in his integrity.

As senior executives headed for the exit doors last month, the inquiry heard that head of investor relations Giovanni Rizzo had been considered for the powerful chief of staff role. That was despite him earlier suggesting to Ms Katsibouba that she delay the booking of losses related to a cash machine fraud committed against Star from July to November 2023.

Ms Katsibouba said the idea was to make the company’s position look stronger than it was and she declined to follow the advice because it was not an appropriate accounting standard.

Lost confidence: Former Star Casino CEO Robbie Cooke.

Star chairman David Foster, who is expected to appear at the inquiry along with Mr Cooke in the next two weeks, announced yesterday he was taking a temporary leave of absence from the board of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, where he is also the chairman.

Former Star chief legal officer Betty Ivanoff said she realised she could not continue in the job after Mr Cooke despite her requests refused to provide copies of correspondence from the NSW Independent Casino Commission as well as reports from Mr Weeks.

Ms Ivanoff told the inquiry that Mr Cooke did not take the request for the documents well, saying he could not provide them as “they were addressed to the board and were matters for the board alone to deal with.”

“These reports had been provided in the past and I’m surprised that there would be a reluctance now,” Ms Ivanoff said. Ms Ivanoff said she found that frameworks and accountabilities at the troubled casino group were unclear. While she was working with one of the best in-house legal teams, she felt undermined and excluded around issues such as continuous disclosure requirements and ASX releases.

“If you are dealing with a chief executive officer who negotiates legal agreements on their own and they just come back to you with a version and skip maybe two or three versions in between, in my view that is haphazard,” Ms Ivanoff said. “If there were meetings that included external lawyers and the board or the CEO, I may not necessarily be told about them.” She said her recollections of meetings and decisions often differed from Mr Cooke, sparking disputes including over when she actually handed in her resignation. Ms Ivanoff said she resigned via letter in September 5, 2023, a date later disputed by Mr Cooke.

“Robbie and I would attend the same meeting and we would come out of that meeting with a different view on what the next steps were,” she said. She said in one meeting in Mr Week’s office they had agreed on the scope of remediation works that would then be submitted to the Queensland and the New South Wales regulators for review.

The Star Sydney at night.

“I then drafted and worked with our external law firm who was assisting us at that time to prepare that scope and the submission to the regulators,” said Ms Ivanoff.

“Robbie took some time to come back to me but when he came back he said why are we doing this? I said because that’s what we agreed. So then I asked for a meeting with him.

“I even called I think, two of the attendees from the manager’s office to double check whether my recollection from the meeting was correct or not. They verified it was correct. So it’s just those sorts of things. We’re in the same meeting so we should be on the same page but we’re coming out of these with very different views.”

The inquiry continues on Thursday.