Star Entertainment Group’s top risk and legal manager says risk assessments were completed on a controversial junket operator but it’s possible they weren’t documented.
Star’s chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin concluded her testimony on Thursday.
The former CEO of the authority conducting the inquiry into whether The Star Sydney should keep its casino licence, who now works for the entertainment group, also gave his evidence.
The timing of Star’s sharing of documents, with the current inquiry and previously with the regulator, was a recurrent theme of Thursday’s hearing.
The hearing was initially delayed by new evidence: an email which counsel assisting the inquiry Naomi Sharp SC said should have been produced earlier in relation to a summons.
The email referred to meetings in Hong Kong and Macau that raised questions about people linked to operators in Star’s international rebate business, known as junkets.
The hearing has previously heard junket operator Suncity — a group with alleged organised crime links — had an exclusive access deal over a VIP room at The Star known as Salon 95.
Ms Martin had limited knowledge of the risk assessments of Suncity and its CEO Alvin Chau, following media allegations of money laundering occurring in Salon 95.
The risk assessments were completed, Ms Martin said.
However, she could not tell the hearing where a document proving that could be found, and would be «guessing» if she was to specifically name someone who had conducted one.
Ms Sharp said she had requested documents showing a risk assessment had been completed, but none had been provided.
«That rather suggests that there was no completed risk assessment,» Ms Sharp said.
«That’s possibly the case in a documented sense,» Ms Martin said.
«But I don’t think it rules out that there were discussions about risk aspects that were assessed,» she said.
Star’s general manager of social responsibility Micheil Brodie also gave evidence to the inquiry on Thursday afternoon.
He was CEO of the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority (ILGA) at the time Star was trying to find a workaround to continue accepting payments from China Union Pay cards in 2014.
Star compliance manager Graeme Stevens previously told the hearing he was not trying to mislead the regulator by failing to disclose the workaround, which involved swiping casino patron’s cards at terminals in the adjoining hotel and disguising gambling transactions as accommodation services.
Mr Brodie said he did not recall ever being notified of the practice while at ILGA but agreed it would have raised questions that something unusual was occurring.
ILGA was also not told about a report by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, possessed by The Star and finalised by its current due diligence and intelligence manager Angus Buchanan, warning Suncity had links to organised crime groups engaged in money laundering in Australia.
Mr Brodie said he did not recall ever reading a copy of the report.
But he believed Star should have shared its knowledge and possession of the report with ILGA.
«I think it’s incumbent on any regulated entity to be as forthright in providing information as it can be,» Mr Brodie said.
«It should draw it to the regulator’s attention to give them the opportunity to think about whether or not they want go to this web-site dig deeper.»
The inquiry is scheduled to resume hearings on April 26.
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