Australian casino operator Crown Resorts is now the subject of a federal probe into its dealings with Chinese VIP gamblers.
On Tuesday, Australia’s Attorney General Christian Porter informed parliament that he’d referred the allegations made against Crown in Sunday’s 60 Minutes report to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), a corruption watchdog that keeps tabs on federal agencies.
Porter claimed that there were “sufficient concerns raised at least to warrant further investigations,” particularly regarding reports that the federal government had an arrangement with Crown to fast-track short-stay visa applications for the company’s international VIP gamblers.
The Department of Home Affairs confirmed what critics called its ‘sweetheart’ visa deal with Crown dating back to 2003 but said the deal ended in 2016, shortly after some Crown staff were arrested on the Chinese mainland for promoting its gambling options to potential VIP customers.
But the Department insisted there was “no reduced vetting” of Crown’s Chinese customers and staffers had “no discretion to waive legislative checks or requirements and the department has no evidence that this has occurred.”
Crown shares slipped 5% following Porter’s mid-afternoon announcement but staged a late rally that saw its shares close out Tuesday’s trading down 1.9% to A$12.03. Crown issued a statement saying it would “fully cooperate” with the ACLEI probe but also claimed that the allegations were “ill-informed and an attempt to smear the company.”
These smears include fresh claims by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, who has long been a thorn in Crown’s side. On Tuesday, Wilkie told parliament that a former Crown Melbourne driver had relayed lurid tales of “foreign nationals getting off [Crown’s private jet] with up to 15 bags for a short stay, stopping only on the way to the casino to pick up a sex worker.”
Wilkie asked parliament to launch its own inquiry into the Crown allegations but the Labour and Coalition factions of the House of Representatives voted against the measure.
Porter supported that vote, saying the ACLEI’s “significant powers” made it the right body to handle the task, while denying that he was protecting senior government officials from parliamentary scrutiny. Porter said any findings of criminality would be referred to the Australian Federal Police, and the ACLEI would be required to publicly justify any recommendation against further investigation.
Much of the criticism in the 60 Minutes report involved Crown’s relationships with junket operators, who the report alleged were facilitating drug deals, human trafficking and money laundering. Crown said it had a “robust process” for selecting its junket partners and “undertakes regular ongoing reviews” of these relationships as new information comes to light.
