Sex slave traders, a murderer and loan sharks: Inside Star Entertainment’s seamy underbelly

Accused sex slave traders, a murderer for hire, loan sharks and drug traffickers gambled billions of dollars at Star, which asked few questions about its high-rollers’ source of wealth.

A gaming table inside Chinese junket Suncity’s exclusive gaming room at The Star, known as Salon 95.

Accused sex slave traders, a murderer for hire, loan sharks and drug traffickers were allowed to gamble billions of dollars at Star Entertainment for years, despite details of their crimes being publicly available.

Federal Court action from the financial crimes regulator has exposed the seamy underbelly of Australia’s second biggest casino operator.

As late as last year, Star’s leadership stressed that the company was different to its scandal-plagued rival Crown Resorts. It was the underdog compared with the ritzy and billionaire-backed Crown, with Star — colloquially known as the Pyrmont RSL — attracting a certain knockabout charm.

The reality is, when Adam Bell SC began his public hearings into the group in March, chief executive Matt Bekier wouldn’t last the week before announcing his resignation. Other executives and most of the board, including chairman John O’Neill, followed quickly. Such was the extent of wrongdoing that would be unearthed.

In a statement of claim, totalling more than 2000 pages, Austrac has further up-ended the picture that Star had portrayed for years.

Above the rows of its brightly-lit poker machines, and zing and pop of their electronic noises, Star harboured a sinister world. In its exclusive gaming rooms it asked little to no questions about the source of wealth of its high-rollers.

Former Star Entertainment chairman John O'Neill, left, and former CEO Matt Bekier. Picture: Liam Kidston

This was despite patrons having known links to sex and human trafficking, while one VIP customer tried to kill another over unpaid gambling debts.

Austrac has listed 117 customers in its rogues’ gallery of Star patrons that forms its “extensive” statement of claim against the group.

From the beginning it makes for troubling reading. Customer one — Austrac doesn’t mention names — was arrested overseas several times over loan sharking, criminal intimidation, blackmail and unlawful detention.

But each time the customer was arrested, they were released without charge, keeping their criminal record clean. Customer one was also a member of a “foreign political body”, while their “prior roles in casinos would have necessitated associations with overseas organised crime syndicates”.

But Star allowed customer one to continue to play at its casinos — even after it commissioned three reports from external due-diligence providers. The money kept coming in, with customer one funding junkets with a cumulative turnover of more than $12.6bn between 2016 and 2020 at the Star.

Another patron — customer 13 — had attracted media headlines from as early as 2011 over alleged links to serious organised crime, including human trafficking and sex slavery.

“Customer 13 owned a brothel that had repeatedly been raided by police and was the subject of sex trafficking investigations between 2008 and 2015,” Austrac said.

“Customer 13 was a suspected senior member of an overseas organised crime syndicate and was allegedly connected to a wider international money laundering network.”

This was further supported in tribunal and court records in the following years. “From 2015, open court records reported that customer 13’s brothel had alleged links to organised crime and serious criminal activity, including money laundering, through the recruiting of women from a 578 foreign region to work in the brothel for the material benefit of managers and staff,” Austrac said.

The Star casino in Sydney. Picture: Bloomberg

But if Star’s management were aware of the allegations, it didn’t let on — nor did it ask questions.

“At no point did Star Sydney or Star Queensland conduct sufficient inquiries regarding customer 13’s source of funds or source of wealth to reveal his ownership of the brothel and the publicly available information described above,” Austrac said.

“It was not until August 2019, following the publication of open source media articles which named Customer 13, that Star Sydney and Star Queensland became aware that he owned a brothel.

“Moreover, customer 13 was a suspected senior member of an overseas organised crime syndicate and was allegedly connected to a wider international money laundering network. This presented a real risk in respect of customer 13’s source of wealth and source of funds.”

Another patron, customer 60, had access to Star Sydney’s private gaming suites, including the Sovereign, Chairman and Oasis rooms, with the person’s gambling turnover exceeding $75m in 2018 alone.

It was a mammoth sum, considering Star reported that the patron was employed as a public servant.

“Customer 60’s stated source of wealth was not commensurate with the high value designated services provided to him by Star Sydney,” Austrac said.

More troubling, customer 60 was a target of an unsuccessful murder attempt over failing to pay money to another junket.

“In January 2019, Star Sydney was informed by law enforcement of a further complaint alleging that Customer 27, Customer 60 and their associate were involved in loan-sharking and proxy betting at Star Sydney, in which large debts incurred from gambling were required to be repaid at an inflated interest rate, or debtors were forced to transfer ownership of properties and other assets,” Austrac said.

“(But) Star Sydney did not monitor Customer 60 in relation to the provision of designated services, with a view to identifying, mitigating and managing the ML/TF (money laundering/terrorism financing) risks it reasonably faced.”

While customer 60 was a target of attempted murder, Star allowed a patron — known as customer 83 and an alleged hit man — to gamble at its casinos for five years.

“By June 2015, Star Queensland was aware of a media article which alleged that customer 83 had been at the centre of criminal investigations in respect of various criminal activity, including murder, gunshot wounding and arson,” Austrac said.

Austrac chief executive Nicole Rose. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“Publicly accessible media articles reported that customer 83 had repeatedly been accused by law enforcement in Australian courts of being a high-ranking member of an organised crime syndicate in Australia; was the subject of substantial intelligence which indicated that he had substantial and close involvement with criminal conduct including drug importation, murder and extortion; and was a known associate of prominent criminal entities and persons who had a history of significant criminal conduct that included money laundering and drug trafficking.

“Nonetheless, between 2016 and 2021, Star Queensland recorded turnover exceeding $13.9m for customer 83.”

This is only a snapshot of Star’s alleged breaches of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism breaches — which Austrac says are too numerous to quantify, with each contravention attracting a maximum penalty between $18m $22.2m.

Austrac chief executive Nicole Rose says Star’s failure to comply with these laws has exposed the Australian and global financial system to systemic money laundering and terrorism financing risk over many years.

“Star Sydney and Star Queensland provide more than just gaming services to customers. They provide financial services that facilitate the movement of money into and out of the casino environment, including across international borders. These financial services are high value and high volume,” Austrac said in its statement of claim.

“In the absence of appropriate risk-based controls, these combined risks made Star Sydney and Star Qld vulnerable to criminal exploitation. This is because money could be moved into and out of the casinos, and within the casinos in ways that lacked transparency as to the source and ownership of funds.”

Originally published as Sex slave traders, a murderer and loan sharks: Inside Star Entertainment’s seamy underbelly