{"id":29470,"date":"2022-05-02T11:16:19","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T14:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=29470"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:06:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:06:34","slug":"former-star-ceo-matt-bekier-let-down-by-senior-managers-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-star-ceo-matt-bekier-let-down-by-senior-managers-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"Former Star CEO Matt Bekier let down by senior managers, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former Star Entertainment Group chief executive\u00a0Matt Bekier\u00a0<\/strong>said he was disappointed by the Sydney casino’s management but that failings were ultimately his responsibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.-\u00a0Former Star Entertainment Group CEO\u00a0Matt Bekier\u00a0<\/strong>has given testimony to the New South Wales regulator, the ILGA, in its inquiry into the casino operator. He told the inquiry he was disappointed by the Sydney casino’s management and blamed the failure of the international VIP business on the venue’s “subculture”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media reports, Bekier said: “The dark art of acquiring customers, to convince them to fly long range and gamble in our casinos … settle and collect the money. That\u2019s very different from the rest of our business.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counsel assisting, Naomi Sharp SC, asked Bekier who had let him down, asking him to assess former colleagues who had testified to the inquiry. Bekier said that chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin was “extremely talented” but tried to solve problems herself rather than escalate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of Oliver White, Star Entertainment\u2019s in-house lawyer<\/strong>, he said: “I trusted him, and he would have had the currency to come to me and escalate any problem to me and I would have listened.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Star\u2019s chief legal and risk manager admits she could have done more<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Star Entertainment\u2019s chief legal and risk manager Paula Martin <\/strong>came under pressure from counsel assisting, Naomi Sharp SC, on her third day of testimony at the New South Wales inquiry into Star\u2019s suitability to continue holding a casino licence in Sydney. She denied the company had been \u201cout of control\u201d when it came to money laundering risk, but admitted that she could have done more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to local media reports, Sharp accused of Martin of personally \u201cacting in complete disregard of the obvious money laundering <\/strong>and counter-terrorism financing risks\u201d of the casino operator\u2019s decision to continue accepting China UnionPay as a payment method from 2013 to March 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martin said she disagreed but admitted she could have done more and agreed the company misled National Australia Bank<\/a> about the use China UnionPay cards at Star Entertainment venues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The public hearings into The Star Sydney<\/strong> will continue until August 31<\/a> after the New South Wales regulator, the ILGA, approved Adam Bell SC\u2019s request for an extension.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Star Entertainment Group chief executive\u00a0Matt Bekier\u00a0said he was disappointed by the Sydney casino’s management but that failings were ultimately his responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":25794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Former Star Entertainment Group CEO Matt Bekier testified before the ILGA inquiry, acknowledging ultimate responsibility for the Sydney casino's failings, including its international VIP business and a \"subculture\" that enabled issues. Concurrently, former Chief Legal and Risk Officer Paula Martin admitted the company misled National Australia Bank regarding China UnionPay usage, despite denying the company was \"out of control\" on money laundering risks. The inquiry, extended until August 31, scrutinizes Star's suitability for its casino license amidst serious governance and compliance breaches.","focusai_entities":"Star Entertainment Group, Matt Bekier, Paula Martin, Oliver White, Naomi Sharp SC, Adam Bell SC, ILGA, National Australia Bank","focusai_location":"Australia, Sydney, New South Wales","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":"License Suitability Impact","query":"What specific governance framework enhancements and compliance remediation efforts will Star Entertainment Group need to implement to satisfy ILGA's suitability requirements and mitigate license revocation risk?"},{"label":"AML\/CTF Systemic Failures","query":"Beyond the China UnionPay issue, what systemic AML\/CTF control deficiencies were identified, and what implications do these have for broader industry best practices in high-roller VIP management?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[23871],"class_list":["post-29470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-the-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29470","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=29470"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29481,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29470\/revisions\/29481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}