{"id":30080,"date":"2022-05-24T03:43:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T06:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=30080"},"modified":"2026-04-23T08:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T11:28:40","slug":"former-star-chairman-admits-hiring-unqualified-executives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/former-star-chairman-admits-hiring-unqualified-executives","title":{"rendered":"Former Star chairman admits hiring unqualified executives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

John O\u2019Neil has told New South Wales’ inquiry into the Star Entertainment Group that he was wrong to hire three executives who were not qualified for their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Star Entertainment\u00a0Group’s former executive chairman John O\u2019Neil\u00a0<\/strong>has finally given his testimony to the New South Wales inquiry into the company\u2019s fitness to keep its Sydney casino licence. During a hearing originally scheduled for last week, O\u2019Neil admitted that compliance manager Graeme Stevens, chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin and investigations officer Kevin Houlihan were not qualified for their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O’Neil admitted that\u00a0he was wrong to promote <\/strong>the three\u00a0and said the company should have given more thought to training and upskilling them for the roles. Martin<\/a>\u00a0has resigned from the company after admitting she could have done more regarding money laundering at the Sydney casino. She agreed that\u00a0the company misled National Australia Bank<\/a>\u00a0about the use of China UnionPay cards at Star Entertainment venues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O’Neil told the inquiry: “She didn’t have sufficient background and experience in the risk and compliance space.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Naomi Sharp SC<\/strong>, asked O’Neill why the company had withheld from AUSTRAC a 2018 KPMG independent audit report that spoke of financial crimes. O’Neill admitted that the company behaved in an inappropriate and non-transparent manner. He highlighted recent board changes,\u00a0including his own resignation<\/a>, and said it was necessary to achieve “as much cleansing as possible”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has named Ben Heap as interim chairman and Geoff Hogg as acting chief executive officer. Both will assume their new roles starting June 1, subject to regulatory approvals. The inquiry is scheduled to go on\u00a0until August 31<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John O\u2019Neil has told New South Wales’ inquiry into the Star Entertainment Group that he was wrong to hire three executives who were not qualified for their jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":28311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Star Entertainment Group's former executive chairman, John O\u2019Neil, admitted to the New South Wales inquiry that he hired unqualified executives for key compliance and risk roles and that the company withheld a critical KPMG audit report from AUSTRAC. These admissions highlight significant governance failures and non-transparent practices regarding financial crime and anti-money laundering protocols. The ongoing inquiry and recent board changes underscore the severe regulatory scrutiny facing the casino operator.","focusai_entities":"Star Entertainment Group, John O\u2019Neil, Graeme Stevens, Paula Martin, Kevin Houlihan, National Australia Bank, AUSTRAC, KPMG, Naomi Sharp SC, Ben Heap, Geoff Hogg","focusai_location":"Australia, Sydney","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"License Revocation Impact?","query":"What specific financial and operational contingencies has Star Entertainment Group prepared for in the event of a license revocation or significant punitive measures by the New South Wales Independent Casino Commission?"},{"label":"Governance Framework Review?","query":"Beyond executive changes, what comprehensive enhancements to Star Entertainment Group's governance frameworks and internal control systems are being implemented to prevent future AML and transparency breaches?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[23871],"class_list":["post-30080","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\/30080","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=30080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30100,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30080\/revisions\/30100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}