{"id":29570,"date":"2022-05-04T11:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T14:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=29570"},"modified":"2026-04-23T09:00:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T12:00:49","slug":"star-senior-manager-misappropriated-gambling-money-inquiry-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/star-senior-manager-misappropriated-gambling-money-inquiry-hears","title":{"rendered":"Star senior manager misappropriated gambling money, inquiry hears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The New South Wales inquiry into Star Entertainment has been told that a senior manager transferred a payment from a junket operator into his own account before disappearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- In\u00a0a new day of public hearings into Star Entertainment’s suitability\u00a0<\/strong>to run its Sydney casino, the New South Wales inquiry has heard that a senior manager allegedly transferred more than AU$13m in gaming funds from junkets\u00a0<\/strong>into his own account before “disappearing” in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Marcus Lim, another member of staff in the VIP area, was accused of receiving kickbacks and making corrupt payments. However, despite an investigation, Lim was allowed to remain on “gardening leave” for six months..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Star chief executive Matt Bekier<\/a>\u00a0rejected suggestions that VIP team misconduct was “out of control”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp SC<\/strong>, asked Bekier\u00a0if the company had tried to get rid of Lim quietly to avoid making any disclosures of seriously inappropriate conduct of a senior manager at Star Entertainment group. Bekier denied the accusation but admited that the VIP team was the most vulnerable\u00a0<\/strong>to exploitation due to its massive turnover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharp said: “Just at the point in the business where the flow of money was at its highest, and where the [anti-money laundering] risks were the greatest, and where the integrity risks to the casino were the greatest, senior management completely dropped the ball … didn’t it?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bekier replied: “I wouldn’t agree with the characterisation that we completely dropped the ball.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, Matt Bekier <\/strong>told the inquiry he was disappointed by the Sydney casino\u2019s management<\/a> and blamed the failure of the international VIP business on the venue\u2019s \u201csubculture\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bekier said: \u201cThe dark art of acquiring customers, to convince them to fly long range and gamble in our casinos \u2026 settle and collect the money. That\u2019s very different from the rest of our business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharp 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 \u201cextremely talented\u201d 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: \u201cI trusted him, and he would have had the currency to come to me and escalate any problem to me and I would have listened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New South Wales inquiry into Star Entertainment has been told that a senior manager transferred a payment from a junket operator into his own account before disappearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":21504,"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 New South Wales inquiry into Star Entertainment has uncovered allegations of a senior manager illicitly transferring AU$13m from junket operators to his personal account before absconding, alongside accusations of kickbacks involving another VIP team member. Former CEO Matt Bekier, while denying a complete failure, acknowledged the VIP division's vulnerability to exploitation and cited a \"subculture\" as a contributing factor to the international VIP business's issues. The inquiry highlights significant governance and AML control deficiencies within the casino operator.","focusai_entities":"Star Entertainment, Matt Bekier, Marcus Lim, Naomi Sharp SC, Paula Martin, Oliver White","focusai_location":"New South Wales, Australia, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.95), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Star's Governance Failures?","query":"What specific enhancements to Star Entertainment's governance frameworks and internal controls are being mandated to address the systemic AML and integrity failures identified within its VIP operations?"},{"label":"Regulatory Precedent Impact?","query":"How might the findings and potential sanctions from the New South Wales inquiry into Star Entertainment influence the regulatory compliance expectations and licensing conditions for other iGaming and land-based casino operators globally, particularly concerning junket partnerships and VIP management?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[23911,23871],"class_list":["post-29570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-the-star-entertainment-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570","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=29570"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29579,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29570\/revisions\/29579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}