{"id":18198,"date":"2021-05-24T17:00:24","date_gmt":"2021-05-24T17:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=18198"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:16:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:16:46","slug":"wa-aml-unit-should-never-have-been-disbanded-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wa-aml-unit-should-never-have-been-disbanded-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"WA AML unit should never have been disbanded, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Western Australia’s former chief casino officer, David Halge, has said that an anti-money laundering police unit that has been dismantled in 1999 could have helped to prevent money laundering at Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- At the beginning of a third week of public hearings,\u00a0Western Australia’s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts has heard from David Halge<\/strong>, former chief casino officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He told the inquiry that an anti-money laundering<\/strong> (AML)<\/strong> police unit <\/strong>dismantled in 1999 could have helped\u00a0Western Australia\u2019s Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC)\u00a0<\/strong>to\u00a0investigate potential criminal activities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Halge said\u00a0the AML unit comprised a single person<\/strong>\u00a0whose work solely entailed investigating junket operators. Halge said explained\u00a0that person analysed junket operators<\/strong>\u00a0and reported any criminal activity to the GWC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: “Once the police unit was disbanded,\u00a0I didn’t need to take any report up to the commission that was brought to me<\/strong>\u00a0by the inspectors concerning criminal activities or money laundering.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Halge suggested that Gaming and Wagering Commission member\u00a0Barry Sargeant should be asked\u00a0<\/strong>why the AML police unit was dismantled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week ago,\u00a0Sargeant\u00a0<\/strong>said the\u00a0GWC<\/a>\u00a0was aware of risks of criminal conduct\u00a0<\/strong>but did not have the resources or knowledge to deal with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sargeant added\u00a0that GWC would rely on the WA Police and the Australian Federal Police<\/strong>\u00a0despite having the power to order investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sargeant’s testimony came after the head of the GWC<\/a>, Duncan Ord<\/strong>, admitted he had no formal training in casino regulation <\/strong>before assuming the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sargeant also said\u00a0he had reservations about the appointment of Mark Beecroft as chief casino officer\u00a0<\/strong>after Michael Connolly stepped down following revelations about his social relationship with\u00a0Crown staff<\/a>.\u00a0However,\u00a0<\/strong>he said that he did not raise concerns because he could not think of an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ord, in his own testimony, made mention of\u00a0Michael Connolly<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>Western Australia\u2019s former chief casino officer<\/a>, who stepped down after revelations about his\u00a0social relationship with Crown staff.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Ord, Connolly had previously notified the gambling regulator <\/strong>that he had personal friendships with Crown Perth staff but it was only decided that he should step aside when the matter received media attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ord said he did not seek any advice from any other members of the commission about the decision and said: \u201cI believe that\u00a0it was appropriate to accept that<\/strong>, and in doing so, we were wanting to show we were ensuring the integrity of the Gaming and Wagering Commission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission expects to deliver an internal report by June 30 <\/strong>and a final report by November 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western Australia’s former chief casino officer, David Halge, has said that an anti-money laundering police unit that has been dismantled in 1999 could have helped to prevent money laundering at Crown Resorts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Western Australia's Royal Commission into Crown Resorts has uncovered significant past regulatory deficiencies, including the dismantling of a dedicated anti-money laundering (AML) police unit in 1999 and the Gaming and Wagering Commission's acknowledged lack of resources and expertise to investigate criminal activities. Testimony also highlighted conflicts of interest and inadequate training among senior regulators, underscoring systemic governance failures that potentially facilitated money laundering at Crown Resorts.","focusai_entities":"Crown Resorts, David Halge, Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission, Western Australia\u2019s Gaming and Wagering Commission (GWC), Barry Sargeant, WA Police, Australian Federal Police, Duncan Ord, Mark Beecroft, Michael Connolly","focusai_location":"Western Australia, Australia","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 (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"GWC Accountability","query":"What specific governance reforms and resource allocations will the Western Australia Gaming and Wagering Commission implement to prevent future regulatory failures and ensure robust AML oversight?"},{"label":"Operator Due Diligence","query":"How will the findings of the Royal Commission influence the due diligence requirements and ongoing compliance obligations for licensed operators in Western Australia, particularly regarding AML and conflicts of interest?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[20215,23911],"class_list":["post-18198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-crown-perth","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18198","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=18198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18229,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18198\/revisions\/18229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}