Crown Perth is accused of disguising the destination of VIP patrons\u2019 funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Australia.- During the latest session of public hearings,\u00a0Western Australia\u2019s Royal Commission<\/strong>\u00a0heard from\u00a0<\/strong>Ken Barton<\/a>, former Crown CEO who stepped down in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton was asked if Crown Perth had adopted the name \u201cRiverbank Investments\u201d<\/strong> for its bank account in order to allow Chinese high rollers to mask their transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton answered that there was a “desire by some patrons to not have the name of the casino in<\/strong>\u00a0as the counterparty to some financial transactions”. He said he didn’t think about possible money laundering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The WA Royal Commission also heard\u00a0that Crown’s anti-money laundering (AML) compliance office would use discretion<\/strong>\u00a0if there was a patron that had engaged in money laundering.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton said this was wrong and that he later received\u00a0proper training on AML and counter-terrorism financing<\/strong>\u00a0ten years after he joined the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Barton stepped down after Commissioner Patricia Bergin found that Barton had shown he was not up to the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n James Sullivan<\/a>, gaming product manager, recently revealed\u00a0Crown Perth\u2019s RSG team wasn\u2019t aware of poker machine purchases<\/strong>, nor of monthly data highlighting the top spenders on\u00a0electronic gaming machines.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sullivan was asked if he thought the RSG team should have been informed on\u00a0which customers were spending the most money<\/strong>\u00a0in the casino to make sure that they were not suffering from gambling-related harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sullivan answered that he wasn\u2019t sure but admitted that data might have been of interest. He was also asked if he consulted the RSG team regarding the purchase of poker machines. He said that the RSG team wasn\u2019t involved in purchasing decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the\u00a0Western Australian Royal Commission<\/a>\u00a0into\u00a0Crown Perth will continue until March 2022<\/strong>, the gaming regulator may call on Racing and Gaming Minister Reece Whitby to cancel Crown\u2019s licence before the end of the inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Former Supreme Court justices Neville Owen<\/strong> and Lindy Jenkins <\/strong>together with former auditor-general Colin Murphy have already sent an interim report <\/strong>to the governor of Western Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Owen said: \u201cSo far as we are aware, this is the first time since the grant of the casino licence in 1988 that there has been an inquiry into these issues<\/strong> and given social changes in over 30 years, there is an increased importance to an inquiry of this kind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will be concerned with grave matters of private and public interest and we enter into this investigation with that firmly in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n