{"id":11062,"date":"2020-10-20T20:52:18","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T20:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=11062"},"modified":"2026-04-24T00:49:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:49:52","slug":"crown-chair-admits-ineptitude-handling-suncity-junket","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-chair-admits-ineptitude-handling-suncity-junket","title":{"rendered":"Crown chair admits \u201cineptitude\u201d handling Suncity junket"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Helen Coonan has admitted failings at the NSW inquiry but said the company is ready to open its new Sydney casino.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Australia.-\u00a0Crown Resorts chairman Helen Coonan has admitted failings but told New South Wales authorities the operator did not turn a blind eye to warnings of money laundering related to a Suncity-operated junket in Melbourne.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) inquiry asked about Coonan about Crown\u2019s relationship with the junket operated by Alvin Chau, who is regarded by Australian regulators as a politically-exposed person and a former Macau triad member.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coonan said: &#8220;It may have been ineptitude or a lack of attention. I don\u2019t think it was deliberately turning a blind eye. I do think that\u2019s a different adjectival conclusion.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sydney Morning Herald reported that commissioner Patricia Bergin asked Coonan if the company\u2019s actions did not equate to facilitating money laundering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coonan admitted the group&#8217;s \u201cineptitude\u201d could have led to people knowing there was a possibility\u00a0to launder money through its casino. She admitted Crown&#8217;s failings had &#8220;enabled&#8221; money laundering but said the firm was ready and suitable to open its new Sydney casino in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coonan took the stand a day after the Australian financial regulator, AUSTRAC announced a formal <strong><em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-to-face-austrac-investigation\" target=\"_blank\">investigation<\/a><\/em><\/strong> into money laundering procedures at Crown Melbourne.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Helen Coonan has admitted failings at the NSW inquiry but said the company is ready to open its new Sydney casino.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Crown Resorts Chairman Helen Coonan has acknowledged significant anti-money laundering (AML) failings during a New South Wales inquiry, admitting the company's \"ineptitude\" enabled illicit financial activities. Despite these admissions and a concurrent AUSTRAC investigation into Crown Melbourne, Coonan asserted the operator's readiness and suitability to launch its new Sydney casino. This development intensifies scrutiny on Crown's governance frameworks and its capacity to meet stringent regulatory compliance standards.","focusai_entities":"Helen Coonan, Crown Resorts, Suncity, Alvin Chau, New South Wales Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), Patricia Bergin, AUSTRAC, Crown Melbourne","focusai_location":"Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, Melbourne, Macau","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (1.0), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"ILGA Licensing Impact?","query":"What specific conditions or remedial actions might ILGA impose on Crown Resorts to grant or maintain its Sydney casino license, and what is the projected timeline for such a determination?"},{"label":"AUSTRAC Investigation Scope?","query":"How might the ongoing AUSTRAC investigation into Crown Melbourne's AML procedures influence the findings of the NSW inquiry, and what are the potential financial penalties or operational restrictions Crown could face?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[23793,14657],"class_list":["post-11062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-austrac","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11062"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11075,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11062\/revisions\/11075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}