James Packer touches down in Sydney, first time in three years

The billionaire mogul has been photographed touching down in Sydney for the first time in three years.

Australian billionaire businessman James Packer in 2022 with his children Indigo (13), Emmanuelle (9) and Jackson (12) at their luxurious mansion in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Picture: Ana Badillo/The Australian

Billionaire James Packer has touched down in Sydney for the first time in three years.

Pictures, published in The Daily Telegraph, show him leaving a private jet with ex-wife Erica Packer and two daughters.

Mr Packer, the 26th-richest Australian, has not been in the city since January 2020.

The pictures show them with a VistaJet aircraft, a private jet hire company based in Malta.

Mr Packer last year told The Australian he would be visiting Sydney this month.

Suffice to say, a lot has changed since Mr Packer was last in his home town.

Between then and now, he was forced to sell large parts of his inherited business empire after a series of bruising regulatory inquiries into Crown Resorts found cases of serious malfeasance.

The NSW gambling inquiry in 2021 found Crown was unfit to hold a gaming licence for its new $2.2bn casino in Barangaroo after finding instances of money laundering, involvement with tour operators with links to organised crime and arrests of senior staff in China due to illegal promotion. Commissioner Patricia Bergin specifically pointed a finger at Mr Packer, saying his control over the company resulted in “disastrous consequences”.

It was followed by a Victorian royal commission and subsequent regulatory inquiry, which found similar transgressions and that the company had dodged hundreds of millions in state taxes, and was found unsuitable to hold a gaming licence.

Similar findings played out in Western Australia.

Mr Packer was forced to sell his 37 per cent stake in Crown ­before the company was taken over by US-based property and investment firm Blackstone last June.

He said in last year’s interview with The Australian that he would stay with his family at the new Crown building in Barangaroo, which was topped out after he left the city.

“I am very much looking forward to seeing Crown Sydney … it hasn’t been appropriate for me to be in Australia for the last few years,” Mr Packer told The Australian last year.

“I’ve made too many mistakes and I’ve got some big things right too.

“But I have played the game, be it in the media in Australia or with Crown, I’ve played the game and rolled the dice.

“I’m feeling excited about starting my Act Three … my Crown chapter is over.”