Ex-Star boss denies police warning on Suncity crime links

Former Star boss Matt Bekier has denied being told by NSW Police individuals linked to its biggest junket operator had possible links to organised crime.

Star Casino in Sydney. The struggling casino operator has had its shares in a trading halt for months.

Former Star Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier has denied being told by NSW Police that individuals linked to its biggest junket operator, Suncity, had possible links to organised crime.

Mr Bekier told the Federal Court on Thursday he was not troubled by an email he received in July 2019 from Star’s chief casino operator Greg Hawkins, stating six people associated with Suncity had been excluded from the casino, possibly because of their links to organised crime.

“The way I interpreted the six exclusions, was the same way I would have looked at the other hundreds of exclusions that the police made every year,” said Mr Bekier.

“But, I assumed that if the police had real concerns about Suncity, they would have raised this with our people rather than just excluding people without telling us the reasons.

“So, no, I don’t accept that I had been told by police, by law enforcement, of their concerns about Suncity.”

Mr Bekier said he did not find it necessary to have further discussions with NSW Police about the reason for the exclusions.

“I was familiar at that time with the fact that the police didn’t provide reasons for these exclusions, so I didn’t feel that that was necessary,” he said.

“I also felt that this is a matter that was again squarely with Mr Hawkins and Mr Hawkins needed to manage this matter. This is not a matter for me.”

Mr Bekier and eight other former directors and executives of Star are being sued by the corporate watchdog ASIC for breaching their duties in relation to anti-money laundering controls.

Mr Hawkins in the same email to Mr Bekier and chief counsel Paula Martin warned Macau junket operators had received a formal warning from the enclave’s gaming authority of the possible revocation of their junket licences if they conducted active selling or promotion of overseas casino play. China at the time was in the middle of a crackdown on gambling and corruption.

Mr Bekier said he felt “glee” when the share price of rival Crown slumped after media reports claimed its junkets had links to Asian crime gangs.

Former Star boss Matt Bekier leaves Federal Court.

He conceded he sent an email to his wife which said “this is gold” after the radical decline in Crown’s shares after the reports appeared in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald in 2019.

“My wife was aware of the fact that I had for a long time felt that Crown was, you know, getting away with practices that were inappropriate and that I as the chief executive was forever being challenged about why our share price wasn’t performing as Crown’s share price was.

“And so seeing the reaction on the share price and the revelation of these claims against Crown, that was, I guess, a moment of weakness for me to enjoy a bit of glee.” Mr Bekier told the court he felt Star at the time was doing all the right things and would not be impacted by similar allegations.

He said he also was aware of media reports around the same time that Suncity founder Alvin Chau had been blocked from entering Australia.

“I was comfortable that our team would be looking at all of the aspects of Suncity and Mr Chau. My honest evidence is that there were a lot of newspaper articles and there was a lot of news flow at the time and allegations were being made and allegations were being denied.

“I didn’t personally turn my mind to each individual piece of information and I trusted that our team, who was charged with compiling all of that, would be doing the appropriate work.”

Mr Bekier denied lying about seeking access to a report by the Hong Kong Jockey Club in 2019 which outlined crime links involving Suncity.

He told the Federal Court he had attempted to “chase down a copy of the report” and asked then-Star group manager of due diligence and intelligence Angus Buchanan, who produced the report while earlier employed by the Jockey Club, for a copy.

Mr Bekier said Mr Buchanan told him it was the property of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and not his to give.

“I accepted Mr. Buchanan’s condition that said, essentially, ‘It’s not mine to give to you. I wrote that report when I worked for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.’ I accepted that,” Mr Bekier told the court.

Dr Ruth Higgins, lead counsel for ASIC, suggested to Mr Bekier “the evidence you’re giving is a lie. It’s a reconstruction to justify your position before this court in these proceedings, that’s correct?”

Mr Bekier said his evidence was not a lie.

Originally published as Ex-Star boss denies police warning on Suncity crime links