China's alleged influence agent Huang Xiangmo was a Crown high roller

Huang Xiangmo, the political donor ASIO expelled from Australia over his foreign influence activities, was an $800 million-a-year Crown casino high roller, and such a big punter that it used him as a case study of the benefits of uber-wealthy Chinese gamblers moving to live in Australia.

Leaked Crown documents, along with an ongoing Age and Sydney Morning Herald investigation, can also reveal how Mr Huang dealt with powerful former Labor Party operatives working for Crown casino, even after ASIO warned Labor and the Coalition about him in August 2015.

Chinese donor and gambler Huang Xiangmo pictured on the balcony of his Mosman mansion last year.Credit: James Brickwood

Mr Huang was the leader of the peak Chinese Communist Party lobbying and influence organisation in Australia, the Council for the Peaceful Promotion of the Reunification of China. He was also close to Crown and some of its employees.

He appointed a Crown employee, Gary Wong, as his personal adviser.

The Age and Herald can now reveal that former NSW Labor secretary turned Crown corporate affairs executive, Karl Bitar, consulted Mr Huang in October 2016 in connection with the arrest of Crown staff in China for breaking Chinese law by promoting gambling.

Three sources with knowledge of the dealings said Mr Huang told Mr Bitar and others in Crown that he had his own connections to Communist Party officials who could help resolve the situation. Mr Huang had also offered extensive advice on how Crown should deal with Chinese officials.

In answer to questions, Mr Bitar said: “I spoke to hundreds of people and worked around the clock for 10 months to try and assist our detained employees.” He said he was not aware that, a year earlier, ASIO had warned the political parties about Mr Huang.

The Sydney think tank funded by Mr Huang and run by former NSW Labor premier Bob Carr, the Australia-China Relations Institute, also successfully pursued Crown for sponsorship. Crown Resorts is now listed as a "Chairman's Council Member" on the institute's website.

The Age and Herald investigation can also reveal that Crown paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to an alleged violent criminal and close associate of Mr Huang, Xie Xiongming, who was a Crown high roller agent and Mr Huang's deputy at the Chinese Communist Party's lobbying body.

Mr Huang moved to Australia in 2012, but was recently expelled by ASIO after it accused him of seeking to interfere in Australian affairs on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. Former NSW Labor secretary and senator Sam Dastyari lost his career over his relationship with Mr Huang, who has described the decision to cancel his visa as "groundless" and "grotesquely unfair".

Then Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced to quit after revelations he'd tipped off Huang Xiangmo that his phone might have been tapped by security agencies.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Mr Huang's connection to NSW Labor identities came not only via Crown, but also via Labor's NSW head office itself. The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is now separately investigating how Mr Huang and other political donors interacted with state Labor officials to circumvent political donations laws.

That investigation looms as a serious issue for NSW Labor, whose officials have been told that ICAC will hold a public hearing in late August into suspect donations linked to Mr Huang made in 2015.

The scandal enveloping Crown Resorts as a result of revelations about its dealings with suspected Chinese crime bosses and Communist Party influence agents expanded dramatically on Tuesday.

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter referred allegations about an Australian Border Force official working for Crown's key Melbourne high roller agent, Tom Zhou, to the federal corruption watchdog. Allegations that Crown had inappropriate dealings with Commonwealth officials, including visa officials, have also been referred.

On Sunday, former Border Force commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg claimed federal MPs had lobbied his agency on behalf of Crown. He has declined to publicly name the ministers.

Mr Zhou, also known as "Mr Chinatown", is a wanted international criminal who, as well as working with Crown, has headed Communist Party influence organisations in Melbourne and cultivated ties to business and political figures, including Victorian Labor Party identity Mike Yang.

It's now likely that multiple state and federal agencies will examine Crown's operations and those of its high-roller agents after revelations in The Age and the Herald and on 60 Minutes. Victoria Police has already referred one of its own officers for investigation for moonlighting for Mr Zhou.

A Crown spokeswoman said in a statement that the company would assist with any investigation, but "absolutely rejects allegations of illegality", describing them as "an attempt to smear the company".

A key strand of the emerging scandal involves the way the Chinese Communist Party's chief Australian influence operatives - who work with Bejing's United Front agencies - have cultivated deep connections to Crown. For instance, the Sydney-based Mr Huang appointed Melbourne's Mr Zhou, to the NSW United Front body. Both were Crown VVIPs (very, very important people).

United Front scholar Alex Joske describes an overlap between those involved in the world of high rollers and private jets and those involved in United Front work.

“This underbelly of Chinese Communist Party influence is something that we are only just beginning to understand.”

Mr Huang's Crown connections

A substantial data leak from Crown shows that the company supplied Mr Huang with free gambling cash and VIP access to high-society sporting events to encourage him to keep gambling as he sought Australian citizenship.

The James Packer-linked company also wrote in a secret, 2015 memo that Mr Huang's decision to settle in Sydney had “exponentially” increased his gambling turnover at Crown from $200 million to almost $800 million.

“I have done some case studies to compare our customer turnover increase before and after their lifestyle events (migration or investment),” wrote Crown vice-president, VIP lifestyle marketing, Maxwell Wang in 2015.

“Lifestyle events can help your customer increase turnover exponentially.”

Other top-end Chinese punters targeted by Crown include Mr Huang's business partner, Mr Xie, who was vice-president of the Australian Council for the Peaceful Promotion of the Reunification of China.

Mr Xie is on remand in a Sydney jail after being charged by NSW police early this month with allegedly threatening a man with a knife and demanding the transfer of a $10 million property. He was almost stabbed to death in 2016 as part of a suspected triad Asian crime gang hit.

But between 2013 and 2017, Xie was paid by Crown a percentage of the turnover of high-rollers he lured to Australia, earning hundreds of thousands of dollars. Crown records show Mr Xie’s yearly gambling turnover went from around $100 million to almost $123 million when he moved to Australia.

'Migration familiarization tour'

Crown’s strategy was to lure more super-rich Chinese citizens like Mr Huang and Mr Xie to Australia by giving them a “private real-estate tour” and “private investment tour”, and even "Private top school/university tour", according to a 2015 internal Crown email.

Sales staff should offer a “Migration familiarization tour - experience daily life of high net worth Chinese and the Chinese community in both Melbourne and Perth”.

“This is a long process,” another email to Crown’s sales staff says. “If we keep promoting Australia with this focus, this will be your opportunity to develop your next BILLION DOLLAR T/O [turnover] junket and/or player!”

Xie Xiongming, who was a Crown high roller agent and vice-president of the Chinese Communist Party lobbying organisation the  Council for the Peaceful Promotion of the Reunification of China.

An April 2014 email details Crown’s plan to give Mr Xie $10,000 and Mr Huang $20,000 to encourage their patronage at Crown. They also offered Mr Huang VIP entry to the spring racing carnival, grand prix and other prestigious events in Melbourne.

“I'm happy to advise you that Huang ... is confirmed to coming for F1 with his son and family. They prefer lap experience on 15th March, and they will need at least 10x tickets. Will send the booking accordingly,” one internal Crown email states.

It is likely that Mr Huang was paid a rebate from Crown to offset his gambling losses, according to casino sources.

In 2011, Crown assigned a sales staff member, Gary Wong, to facilitate Mr Huang’s gambling and travel to Crown.

Two years later, Mr Wong was employed by Mr Huang in Sydney as Mr Huang gained increasingly prominent roles at Chinese Communist Party-aligned lobbying and influence organisations in Australia.

Mr Wong remains a trusted adviser to Mr Huang in Hong Kong, where he has lived since his expulsion from Australia.

Crown’s data raises questions about the due diligence it carried out on the political or criminal associations of its Chinese high-roller patrons.

However, emails reveal that one reason Crown lured some high rollers to Australia was because of their association with influential Chinese Communist Party figures who were able to recruit more Chinese high-rollers to travel to Australia and gamble.

In 2014 Crown offered a Chinese businessman “private jet usage and family trip to Australia” budgeted at “around $A70,000” and which included the use of a private yacht. The reason for Crown’s largesse was because the businessman “has found one partner who is the vice-chairman of China’s Association of Industry and Commerce in charge of all the private enterprises in China”, and that man was interested in gambling at Crown.

The Industry and Commerce Association is a Chinese influence body that also oversaw Mr Huang’s Sydney pro-Communist Party group.

On Saturday, a Crown whistleblower revealed how the casino company had systematically broken Chinese laws that prohibit gambling and its promotion inside China.

James Packer denied, through his lawyer, any knowledge of Crown’s activities in China, saying he had played a “passive role” in the company.

Crown said in a statement that it would not comment on specific high-roller agents or players, but that it had a “comprehensive" anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program in place, "which is subject to regulatory supervision by AUSTRAC”.

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