‘Deceitful’: Crown bid to set record straight

The board of Crown Resorts has defended the company from what they call a “deceitful campaign” against the casino operator.

Melbourne’s Crown Casino. The board has issued an open letter responding to a series of allegations, which have been refereed to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty

The high-powered board of the James Packer-backed Crown ­Resorts says the casino company is facing a “deceitful campaign” aimed at damaging its reputation and that reports linking it to ­Chinese crime gangs are “misleading”.

Executive chairman John ­Alexander and the board, which includes former Liberal communications minister Helen Coonan, former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, former Qantas boss Geoff Dixon and millionaire adman Harold Mitchell, have signed an open letter — published in a full-page advertisement in news­papers across Australia today — that they say sets the record straight on recent allegations made about the company.

“As a board, we are extremely concerned for our staff, shareholders and other stakeholders, as much as this unbalanced and ­sensationalised reporting is based on unsubstantiated allegations, exaggerations, unsupported connections and outright falsehoods,” the letter reads.

The claims made in a series of reports in Nine Entertainment Co’s newspapers and on 60 Minutes include allegations that Crown had a hotline to Australian consulates to fast-track visa applications for big-spending gamblers flying in from China. There were also allegations Crown laundered large sums of money through its Melbourne gaming venue and had connections to criminal ­organisations.

The board of the casino giant, which has operations in Melbourne and Perth and is building a $2 billion resort in Sydney, argued that the reports included numerous examples of “misleading” journalism. It was reported on Nine’s news sites last night that the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission was launching a “special investigation” into organised crime in Australian casinos, which would likely not just include Crown Resorts but also its rival, Star Entertainment Group.

ACIC chief Michael Phelan ­reportedly said his agency and its intelligence and regulatory partners were actively addressing the significant risks of money launder­ing through casinos.

A Nine spokeswoman said last night that the company had ­declined to publish the Crown ­Resorts “setting the record straight” advertisement.

Instead it published online a detailed rebuttal of each of Crown’s defences.

“We reject Crown’s claims that the story was unbalanced and sensationalised,” the spokes­woman said.

“Nobody was paid to participate in the investigation. We stand by the accuracy of our multiple stories, the investigation and the hard work of our journalists. Crown was given the opportunity to provide comments in the stories but chose to give a single statement that we did publish.”

Attorney-General Christian Porter this week referred alle­gations involving Crown and government agencies to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie is not convinced the inquiry will go far enough and, with six other crossbenchers including Jacqui Lambie and Rebekha Sharkie, has called for a national integrity commission “with teeth”. Mr Wilkie said last night he was sceptical of Crown’s denial.

Mr Wilkie, who has previously aired explosive allegations against the casino under parliamentary privilege, said Crown had in the past denied claims regarding the tampering of poker machines — allegations that were later found by a Victorian inquiry to have merit.

“While I acknowledge that Crown has refuted the allegations, I feel they are so serious that this matter can only be resolved with a proper inquiry,” Mr Wilkie said.

Senator Lambie said she would consider telling the government “where to stick their bills” if it didn’t act on accountability measures. She urged whistleblowers with evidence of corruption to share it with the crossbenchers, who would not hesitate to air the claims.

Crown said it was bound by nondisclosure provisions in legislation relating to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing and was constrained in publicly disclosing details of matters it had reported to Austrac or to other investi­gative/enforcement authorities. But it said it welcomed the ­opportunity to provide that information if requested to assist ACLEI in its investigation.

The company said it had not sought to circumvent visa requirements or compromise processes of identification for immi­gration purposes.

Mr Packer has not commented on the reports. He stepped down from the board last year, citing mental health reasons. The 51-year-old also recently reduced his stake in Crown to 26 per cent after selling 19.9 per cent to Macau-based Melco ­Resorts and Entertainment.

The casino’s board highlighted in its letter that while the reports had alleged connections between Crown and a criminal organisation called “The Company”, it had no dealings or knowledge of any organisation of that name or description. Crown’s letter also said CCTV footage from 2012 that was aired in a 60 Minutes report showed a person alleged to be receiving a plastic bag of cash at a vegetable market.

The company said there was no mention of the fact the individual was excluded from the casino by Crown acting on its own volition more than six years ago.

The allegations made against the company had also focused on the work of junkets, which casinos engage with to lure wealthy gamblers with perks such as luxury travel and accommodation.

Crown said that there was no sense conveyed in the reports that junkets were an established and accepted part of the operations of international casinos. It also said it was wrongly inferred that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s cousin was found on Crown’s private jet by Australian law-enforcement authorities. The jet was not owned nor chartered by Crown.