{"id":777013121,"date":"2024-02-13T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777013121"},"modified":"2026-04-22T13:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T16:03:31","slug":"skycity-faces-civil-penalty-proceedings-for-anti-money-laundering-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/skycity-faces-civil-penalty-proceedings-for-anti-money-laundering-violations","title":{"rendered":"SkyCity faces civil penalty proceedings for anti-money laundering violations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs is taking action over alleged historical compllaince issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand.-\u00a0New Zealand&#8217;s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA)\u00a0is moving forward with civil penalty proceedings against\u00a0SkyCity\u00a0for alleged breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML\/CFT Act).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a company filing,\u00a0the DIA&#8217;s decision comes after a review of SkyCity&#8217;s compliance with the act and involves historical compliance issues outlined in draft pleadings. If the High Court agrees with the department&#8217;s claim,\u00a0SkyCity could face a civil penalty of up to NZ$8m (US$4,88m).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The company stated: &#8220;Since late 2021,\u00a0SkyCity has had in place a significant AML\/CFT enhancement programme\u00a0to address compliance systems and correct historical shortcomings. This has involved, and continues to involve, significant investment in people and technology, and various reviews of SkyCity\u2019s processes and systems to identify areas which require improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;SkyCity is disappointed that it has not met the standard to which it needs to hold itself, and this has resulted in the action taken by the Department. SCML and SkyCity will engage constructively with the Department in relation to the proposed proceedings, with a view to resolving these matters expeditiously. Given that the matter will be before the Court, it would be inappropriate for SkyCity to comment further at this stage.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SkyCity said it is committed to improving its processes and systems, especially regarding AML\/CFT and host responsibility matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/skycity-sets-aside-us46m-for-aml-penalty\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SkyCity sets aside US$46m for AML penalty<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For the fiscal year 2023, the casino operator posted revenue of NZ$926.2m (US$551m), up 44.9 per cent&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/skycity-posts-revenue-of-us395m-for-fy22\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">year-on-year<\/a>&nbsp;from NZ$639m (US$395m).&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs is taking action over alleged historical compllaince issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":18781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is initiating civil penalty proceedings against SkyCity for alleged historical breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML\/CFT Act). SkyCity faces a potential civil penalty of up to NZ$8m, having already allocated US$46m for such liabilities, and is undertaking a significant AML\/CFT enhancement programme to rectify past shortcomings.","focusai_entities":"New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, SkyCity","focusai_location":"New Zealand","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), tech_data (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (1.0), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"SkyCity AML Impact","query":"What specific deficiencies in SkyCity's AML\/CFT governance framework led to the DIA's civil penalty proceedings, and how might these impact future B2B\/B2C licensing renewals?"},{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Trends","query":"How does the DIA's enforcement action against SkyCity align with broader global trends in iGaming AML\/CFT regulatory compliance, and what implications does this have for other operators in regulated markets?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,439],"tags":[1137],"class_list":["post-777013121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legal-news","tag-skycity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013121","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=777013121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777013134,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777013121\/revisions\/777013134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777013121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777013121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777013121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}