In a highly significant ruling for the global casino industry, Australia’s Federal Court has handed down long bans and heavy fines against two former Star Entertainment Group executives for failing to manage serious money laundering risks.
The Federal Court disqualified former CEO Mathias Bekier and former General Counsel Paula Martin from being able to manage corporations for six and seven years respectively, and they’ve both been ordered to pay penalties, too, for beaching their duties.
Bekier was ordered to pay a pecuniary penalty of $700,000 and was also disqualified from managing corporations for six years, while Martin was ordered to pay $400,000 and disqualified for seven. Both were also ordered by the court to pay 45% of ASIC’s costs of the entire proceeding – although it’s not clear how much this bill will be, yet.
Now, the whole case focused on the executives’ handling of issues to Star’s relationship with Suncity, a Macau-based junket operator. The case was brought by corporate watchdog ASIC, and it focused on how the executives managed increasing concerns around money laundering at the company’s casino operations.
Justice Michael Lee didn’t hold back when he was handing down the verdict, saying that “senior executives of casino operators, and public companies conducting enterprises pregnant with risks more broadly, must understand that failures of the kind established by the contraventions may attract substantial personal consequences.”
Speaking of Martin directly, Justice Lee also said that the community is entitled to expect a solicitor of her stature to “display professional independence and judgment of a high order”, and that her conduct was a very serious “departure” of these standards.
Compared to some of the previous rulings we’ve seen handed down against Star executives – which, usually, involved bans of a year or less – Bekier and Martin’s were notably strict – and that’s something that is going to send warnings through the industry: oversight failures now carry real, personal consequences for the people at the very top of the chain!
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