Crown chair Helen Coonan says Sydney casino will open in December

Despite ‘ineptitude, or lack of attention’ to possible money laundering, Crown chair says Sydney venue will open in December.

Crown director Helen Coonan appearing at the NSW independent Liquor and Gaming Commission inquiry. Picture Supplied

Crown chairman Helen Coonan has told a NSW inquiry that although she regrets the protracted and difficult nature of the hearings, Crown still intends to open the Barangaroo casino before the inquiry’s report on their suitability to operate it is released.

Appearing for a second day in front of the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s inquiry into the suitability of Crown to hold a casino licence in the state, Ms Coonan apologised to Commissioner Patricia Begin for the longwinded nature of the inquiry, which has been sitting since January.

“Along with you commissioner, I have great regret that this inquiry has run the course it has run,” Ms Coonan said.

“In other circumstances I would have much preferred to have something more like a statement of agreed facts or a better way of engaging on these matters than having to have had such exhaustive hearings.

“I said at the time I became chair, and I really mean – and it’s on the record – that I do think that even though it can be very difficult, sometimes you come out of these processes better than when you went into them.

“So I think that there‘s very much lessons to be learned and I certainly want to give you the assurance that as the leader of this company I’m ready to stay the course and ready to ensure that what we see as the necessary changes are implemented and adhered to, if given the privilege of being able to continue.”

However, Ms Coonan earlier said Crown was pushing full steam ahead with the opening of the Barangaroo casino on December 14, despite the inquiry not due to hand down its final report until February 1.

Influencing the decision, she said, was a faster than expected completion of the building, the imminent hiring of a new head of financial crimes and the NSW government’s plan for the development of the Barangaroo foreshore.

“Whether or not we open, with the greatest of respect, is not entirely Crown‘s decision,” Ms Coonan said.

Ms Coonan’s second appearance comes a day after Crown announced to the ASX that the financial crimes regulator Austrac was launching an enforced investigation into their money laundering compliance practices.

Ineptitude, or lack of attention

During the day, Ms Coonan pushed back against suggestions that the casino group took deliberate actions that facilitated money laundering by junket operators.

“It may have been ineptitude or lack of attention, I don’t know that it was deliberately turning a blind eye,” she said.

Commissioner Patrica Bergin asked whether Ms Coonan agreed that however it occurred, Crown was “facilitating” money laundering.

“It’s very difficult to agree with facilitating – I think certainly there were all sorts of signs there I would say Commissioner that ought to have alerted managers to these issues and problems” Ms Coonan replied.

“As I say, I just don’t know if it was ineptitude, or lack of attention to detail, or not having sufficient training, or not understanding what they were seeing – I just don’t know that it was something that was deliberately done to turn a blind eye.”

“Let’s assume it was ineptitude, let’s assume it was a lack of attention,” Ms Bergin replied. “Those two aspects of conduct allowed the money laundering to take place, did it not? “And allowing something – that is not intervening and stopping it on one view of it, it is not unreasonable to say this ineptitude and lack of attention facilitated it.”

“I think … allowed it to happen,” Ms Coonan said.

“And I suppose if you allow something to happen time and again, and people know that they can do it – everybody loses don’t they?

“The community loses because you’ve got money laundering in your casino, correct? And Crown loses because it’s seen as an inept company lacking in attention, correct?

“And the bystander could reasonably conclude that this conglomerate of ineptitude, lack of attention and failing to intervene facilitated money laundering, would you not agree with that?

“Yes,” Ms Coonan agreed. “I think it was a turning of the blind eye I didn’t agree with.”

The inquiry last week heard that the concession desks run by the Suncity “junket” in Crown’s Melbourne casino received and held millions in cash. However transactions undertaken at the junket desks in the private rooms they operated in Crown Melbourne were not required to be reported to Austrac.

Ms Coonan said that she was not aware of the large sums of money passing through the Suncity room, and revealed that she did not know until “a few days ago” that another junket named Meg Star operated a private room on level 39 of Crown Melbourne.

After hearing that Crown chief legal officer and anti money laundering compliance officer Joshua Preston were aware of the junket room problem, Ms Coonan revealed that Mr Preston would cease to be AML officer as of Wednesday.

Ms Coonan said that Crown’s current group general manager for money laundering, Nick Stokes, would replace Mr Preston in that role but mistakenly referred to him as “Mr Travers.”

“He’s about to cease as I understand it and Mr Travers will become the AML compliance officer, the statutory officer, for the three properties,” she said.

The revelation came after Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp displayed an email Austrac sent to Crown in 2017 which sought a justification from Crown about their continued dealings with the Suncity junket’s head Alvin Chau, who has alleged links to organised crime.

Ms Coonan said she wasn’t informed about the email, but “most definitely” should have been.

Going forward, she said, Crown would choose not to associate with junket operators that are not of good repute, if it chose to associate with junkets at all.

“You wouldn't have dealt with them in retrospect and you wouldn’t deal with them prospectively,” Ms Coonan told the inquiry.

Concern over Crown’s visa applications

Ms Coonan was also asked by whether Crown “endorsed” visa applicants.

Ms Coonan said Crown only “supported” the applicants.

“My understanding is that some information was being provided to assist the applicant with English language and things of that nature, but I don’t understand it was endorsing,” she said.

Ms Sharp displayed an email DFAT sent Crown in 2010 which displayed concern over Crown’s visa applications.

“It appears that Crown has become a visa agent, lodging for travel operators and junket agents. We continue to see significant levels of fraud in the case load,’’ the company was told by DFAT, who noted that 10 per cent of the applications lodged by Crown had been refused. “This does not represent a low level of risk,” the email said.

Ms Coonan said that the email was concerning, but a review of Crown’s visa process showed there was no fraud in the visa process.

Ms Sharp then showed Ms Coonan a document checklist that Crown must fill out for every visa applicant which includes a background check and a statement saying that Crown “supports” the applicant.

Commissioner Patricia Bergin said the document’s intention was for Crown to provide the department of immigration with assurances that the visa applicant was worthy of entry.

“On one reading of this, there was an endorsement of these people because Crown had to support the application,” Ms Bergin said.

“They were certainly supporting the applicant, there’s no doubt about that,” Ms Coonan said, before relenting and saying it could be considered an “imprimatur.”

The inquiry resumes tomorrow with former Crown director and Qantas boss Geoff Dixon in the stand.