{"id":17992,"date":"2021-05-18T16:29:08","date_gmt":"2021-05-18T16:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=17992"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:27:18","slug":"crown-resorts-tried-to-delay-aml-controls-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/crown-resorts-tried-to-delay-aml-controls-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"Crown Resorts tried to delay AML controls, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the second day of public hearings in Victoria, VCGLR licensing manager Jason Cremona said a former Crown executive tried to delay the introduction of tighter money-laundering controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Jason Cremona<\/strong>, licensing manager at the Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) has told Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts<\/a> that Crown sought to delay the introduction of tighter money-laundering controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cremona said the Victorian regulator gave the casino 11 months to comply with 20 recommendations <\/strong>but that a year later, in July 2019, Crown Resorts had made no move to start recording high roller<\/strong>s’<\/strong> names and transactions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that when questioned, Crown executives told him they were meeting representatives from the federal financial security agency AUSTRAC<\/strong> to discuss the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, when Cremona spoke with AUSTRAC<\/strong>, the agency told him they had been working with Crown to broaden anti-money laundering policy but not about recording data on high rollers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cremona then sent a letter to Crown’s chief legal officer Joshua Preston<\/strong> to say the casino was at risk of not complying with the recommended protocol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then received a phone call from Crown executive Michelle Fielding<\/strong> saying Preston was “furious” and that he was going to “call the minister to complain.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Court judge Raymond Finkelstein<\/strong>, who is leading the Royal Commission, asked Cremona if he felt Crown was hoping the VCGLR would drop the requirement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cremna replied: “Yes to an extent. I was pretty solid in my position… there was no evidence Crown was taking any action<\/strong> to address recommendation in line with our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he believed Crown Resorts was trying to delay recording the names of all high rollers<\/strong> because the casino operator was afraid they might stop gambling at Crown Melbourne<\/strong>. Cremona said that Crown had finally met all 20 recommendations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Victoria\u2019s Royal Commission is expected to report back to the Victorian government by August 1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the second day of public hearings in Victoria, VCGLR licensing manager Jason Cremona said a former Crown executive tried to delay the introduction of tighter money-laundering controls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Victorian Royal Commission into Crown Resorts has revealed that Crown executives actively sought to delay the implementation of critical anti-money laundering (AML) controls, specifically the recording of high-roller transaction data, despite regulatory directives from the VCGLR. This resistance, driven by concerns over potential revenue loss and involving attempts to exert political pressure, underscores significant corporate governance and regulatory compliance deficiencies within the operator.","focusai_entities":"Jason Cremona, Crown Resorts, Victorian Commission for Gaming and Liquor Regulation, AUSTRAC, Joshua Preston, Michelle Fielding, Raymond Finkelstein, Victorian government","focusai_location":"Victoria, Australia, Melbourne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Governance & Compliance","query":"What specific structural and cultural reforms are anticipated within Crown Resorts' governance framework to ensure robust regulatory compliance and prevent future executive obstruction of AML protocols?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement","query":"How will the VCGLR and AUSTRAC leverage the findings of this Royal Commission to strengthen enforcement mechanisms and proactively ensure adherence to AML and responsible gambling obligations across the Australian gaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,157],"tags":[14657],"class_list":["post-17992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-business-news","tag-crown-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17992","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\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17992"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18033,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17992\/revisions\/18033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}