{"id":7218,"date":"2020-06-11T20:30:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T20:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=7218"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:31:16","slug":"melco-crown-resorts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/melco-crown-resorts","title":{"rendered":"Legal setback for Melco in Crown Resorts case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of NSW authorities and Melco may have to hand over documents it wanted to protect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Australia.- Hong Kong casino group Melco has suffered a legal setback in its attempt to hold back nine documents requested by New South Wales (NSW) authorities in its investigation of the company’s acquisition of its stake in James Packer’s Crown Resorts<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The High Court of Australia has backed a decision by the NSW Court of Appeal to overule the ruling that exempted Melco from providing the papers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA) is investigating whether a licensing breach was committed in the sale of a 20 per cent stake in Crown Resorts to Melco last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation began last January and was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hong Kong firm had managed to get a favourable ruling from the Supreme Court for its claim that the documents requested were covered by legal professional privilege, but the ruling was overturned by the NSW Court of Appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case advanced to the High Court, which now has backed the NSW Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crown Resorts currently owns resorts in Perth, Western Australia and Melbourne, Victoria. It is close to completing a $2.4 billion casino, hotel and luxury apartment tower at Sydney’s Barangaroo, which is due to open its doors early next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The High Court of Australia has ruled in favour of NSW authorities and Melco may have to hand over documents it wanted to protect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7219,"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 High Court of Australia has ruled against Melco, compelling the Hong Kong casino group to potentially disclose nine documents to New South Wales (NSW) authorities. This decision supports the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority's (ILGA) investigation into a potential licensing breach concerning Melco's acquisition of a 20 per cent stake in Crown Resorts. The ruling overturns Melco's claim of legal professional privilege, reinforcing regulatory oversight in the Australian gaming market.","focusai_entities":"Melco, NSW authorities, James Packer, Crown Resorts, High Court of Australia, NSW Court of Appeal, NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority (ILGA), Supreme Court","focusai_location":"Australia, Hong Kong, New South Wales, Perth, Western Australia, Melbourne, Victoria, Sydney, Barangaroo","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.95), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.95)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"ILGA Investigation Scope","query":"What specific licensing breach is ILGA investigating regarding Melco's acquisition of Crown Resorts' stake, and how might this ruling impact the ongoing regulatory review of Crown Resorts' suitability for its Sydney Barangaroo license?"},{"label":"M&A Due Diligence Impact","query":"How does this High Court decision on legal professional privilege affect future M&A due diligence processes and regulatory disclosure requirements for international gaming entities seeking market entry or expansion in Australia?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,158],"tags":[289,14657,665],"class_list":["post-7218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-slider-home","tag-australia","tag-crown-resorts","tag-melco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7218"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777008730,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7218\/revisions\/777008730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}