Former Star Casino CEO Hit with $700k Fine, Six-Year Ban

Two former Star Casino executives have been handed a combined $1.1 million in penalties by the Federal Court for failing to adequately address money-laundering risks. Former Star Casino boss Matt Bekier received the harsher punishment, with a $700,000 fine and a six-year ban from managing any company. Besides Bekier’s penalty, former chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin was fined $400,000 and banned from management for seven years. The court found neither executive demonstrated a full understanding of the seriousness of the findings against them. The penalties stem from their oversight of operations involving international VIP players and junkets, which brought tens of billions of dollars to the business annually.

Federal Court Hands Down $1.1M in Combined Penalties

Justice Lee imposed penalties materially lower than what ASIC requested. The regulator had sought a $1.30 million fine and eight-year ban for Bekier. For Martin, ASIC pushed for a $1.10 million penalty alongside the seven-year disqualification. The court settled on reduced financial penalties while maintaining stricter oversight through management bans.

Beyond the fines, Justice Lee ordered both executives to jointly cover 45 per cent of ASIC’s legal costs in bringing the action. This cost order should exceed the penalties themselves, adding substantial financial burden to the Star Casino executives.

Martin received a longer disqualification period because of the seriousness of the misconduct and the “very serious departure” from her responsibilities as the most senior legal officer in the group. She failed to report “a miscellany of alarming information” to the board, a critical oversight given her position.

Justice Lee weighed the lack of insight displayed by both defendants regarding their wrongdoing. He distinguished between regretting the consequences of investigation and litigation versus demonstrating genuine appreciation of the failures. “It is one thing to regret the consequences of having been investigated and sued; it is another to demonstrate an appreciation of why the conduct found by the Court involved serious failures in the discharge of duties owed by senior officers of a casino operator”.

What Money Laundering Failures Led to the Fines?

The court found Bekier and Martin breached their duties across three primary areas involving junket operations, internal reporting failures, and deceptive banking communications.

Bekier failed to act on a KPMG report that identified deficiencies in Star Casino’s processes for managing anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing risk. He did not properly manage risks arising from gambling junket Suncity’s operations in Salon 95, an exclusive gaming room provided to the operator. Suncity represented Star Casino’s largest junket, with turnover reaching USD 2.10 billion, USD 4.00 billion, and USD 5.90 billion for the 2017, 2018, and 2019 financial years respectively.

An internal investigation dubbed Operation Money Bags revealed suspicious cash transactions at Salon 95. CCTV footage showed large amounts of cash deposited in a red-colored suitcase, dropped off in a black and blue sports bag with a black backpack, deposited in white and yellow plastic bags, delivered in a blue esky bag, and provided to patrons in brown paper bags.

Martin permitted misleading statements to National Australia Bank regarding China Union Pay cards at NAB ATMs located on Star Casino premises. Those statements disguised that Star Casino was permitting CUP cards for gambling, which CUP prohibited. Over USD 900 million was obtained by customers using CUP cards in NAB ATMs from 2013 to 2019.

Why ASIC’s Previous Lenient Deals Reduced the Penalties

Justice Lee criticized ASIC for lenient penalties granted to two other senior executives, which forced him to impose sanctions “materially less severe than what would otherwise be the case” with Bekier and the Star Casino’s former legal chief.

ASIC had previously settled with former chief casino officer Greg Hawkins and former chief financial officer Harry Theodore. Hawkins agreed to pay $180,000 and accepted an 18-month disqualification from managing companies. Theodore received a $60,000 penalty alongside a nine-month ban. Both executives admitted to breaches and avoided full trial proceedings.

Bekier’s barrister Justin Williams argued the former Star Casino boss should receive a penalty of $240,000 or the combined total of fines issued to Hawkins and Theodore. Williams contended that justifying smaller penalties because of time, costs and court resources saved was a “truly Herculean effort”.

Justice Lee expressed concern about the massive discount ASIC granted to the two executives. “It just strikes me as intuitively unfair that such an extraordinarily large disparity exists,” he stated. The settlements created a problematic precedent that limited the court’s ability to impose proportionate penalties on Bekier and Martin despite their more senior positions and greater responsibilities within the Star Casino organization.