Queen’s Wharf co-owner Chow Tai Fook apologised for misleading Queensland government

The co-owner of embattled casino operator Star Entertainment’s Queen’s Wharf in Brisbane repeatedly misled Queensland’s gaming regulator about its dealings with the Macau-based kingpin of a $160bn illegal gambling operation.

The Queens Wharf casino in Brisbane. Picture: David Clark

A secret probity inquiry into a Chinese company vying to lift its stake in Brisbane’s $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf casino and hotel precinct found that undocumented loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars involving a notorious Macau gambling identity linked to organised crime were sealed “on a handshake”, avoiding scrutiny.

The deal between Chow Tai Fook Enterprises boss Henry Cheng, one of Hong Kong’s richest men, and the late Macau casino boss Stanley Ho was part of a web of dealings between CTFE and jailed illegal gambling kingpin Alvin Chau, a key player in the so-called junket trade for ­casino high rollers.

CTFE’s relationship with Chau was investigated by the Queensland Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation after the company’s undeclared links with Chau were exposed in media ­reports in 2022.

But the bombshell investigation report was suppressed, after CTFE went to court to prevent the Queensland government under then Labor premier Steven Miles from releasing it.

New Liberal National Party Attorney-General Deb Frecklington on Thursday honoured an election commitment and published the document under state parliamentary privilege.

The investigation for the OLGR, conducted by consultants PKF Integrity Services, found CTFE repeatedly misled state regulators about its dealings with Suncity founder and “junket king” Chau, who was jailed for 18 years in January 2023 for fraud and running a $160bn ­illegal gambling operation.

CTFE was forced to quietly apologise to Queensland regulators in late 2023 for “inadvertently” concealing the company’s relationship with Chau, to avoid being stripped of its suitability to hold a casino licence.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington. Picture: Glenn Campbell

Jailed junket king Alvin Chau. Picture: Getty Images

Chau was arrested in November 2021, when CTFE and Chau had a shared commercial interest in a major casino and resort project in Hoi An, Vietnam.

The PKF investigation found that before May 2018, Dr Cheng and Macau gambling figure Ho had an undocumented “handshake” agreement to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in finance for the Vietnam project. Shortly before Ho died in August 2018 at 98, he and Dr Cheng formalised the Vietnam deal.

PKF found CTFE was asked by Queensland regulators to explain its links to Chau and concealed the information three times between May 2022 and March 2023. It was only when the company was issued with a legal warning by the Queensland government in September 2023 – threatening the loss of its casino licence – that it handed over “substantive new information” outlining the Vietnam project and its association with Chau.

In an interview with Queensland investigators, CTFE chief executive Patrick Tsang was asked about the accuracy of its ­information to the government, and admitted the company “should have done a better job”.

“The points are accurate, but they are not as fulsome as they should be. I think we have also … apologised for this … failure … we probably took too narrow a view of the scope … of that question.”

He promised regulators that CTFE would make sure “something like this would never happen again, that going forward our answers will be fulsome and that … trust … is there”.

CTFE is a multibillion-dollar conglomerate controlled by Hong Kong’s prominent Cheng family that is at the centre of machinations over the future of the troubled Star ­casino group and its $3.6bn Queen’s Wharf project in Brisbane, occupying 10 per cent of the CBD.

Under a deal struck last month, the Chinese company and its venture partner in Queen’s Wharf, Far East Consortium, also Hong Kong-based, agreed to buy out Star’s 50 per cent stake in the riverside development in return for a $53m cash payment and asset swaps, allowing the casino operator to stave off collapse. This is now being challenged through a surprise bid by US casino operator Bally’s Corporation, controlled by financier Soo Kim.

After receiving the PKF report and legal advice from top silk ­Jonathan Horton KC, then attorney-general Yvette D’Ath decided in May last year there was “insufficient evidence” to find CTFE or its associates were unsuitable to hold a casino licence.

Mr Horton found it was open to Ms D’Ath to find the company remained suitable but should be subject to “vigilant scrutiny”.

“A finding of unsuitability is a serious matter, and grave consequences follow. CTFE has made a considerable investment … while this does not justify any lesser rigour in scrutinising its suitability, it is a basis to require that allegations be supported by probative material,” Mr Horton’s legal advice to Ms D’Ath said. “Taking into account CTFE’s explanation and the opposing evidence, we consider the evidence as to knowledge of ill repute rises no higher than suspicion.”