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Highlights
- ASIC has started civil penalty proceedings against 11 current and former directors and officers of the company.
- The proceedings will take place in the Federal Court fir alleged breaches of their duties.
- Breaches of director’s duties attract a maximum penalty of AU$1.05 million for each breach between 2017-2019.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against eleven current and former directors and officers of The Star Entertainment Group Limited (ASX:SGR). These officers are being alleged to have breached their duties.
The civil proceedings are on under section 180 of the Corporations Act.
Meanwhile, the shares of The Star Entertainment Group traded at AU$2.580 apiece at 1:51 PM AEDT on the ASX.
Key highlights from the ASIC proceedings against The Star
- ASIC has started civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court against eleven current and former directors and officers of The Star Entertainment Group Limited.
- ASIC alleges that these authorities did not perform their duties well.
- As per ASIC, Star’s board and executives failed to focus on the risk of money laundering and criminal associations. All this, as per ASIC is comes with the business involving casino with an international customer base.
- ASIC has started proceedings against members of the Star Board between 2017 to 2019. The list features former Chair John O Neill, former Managing Director and CEO Matthias Bekier besides, Kathleen Lahey, Richard Sheppard, Gerard Bradley, Sally Pitkin, Benjamin Heap and Zlatko Todorcevski.
- According to ASIC, these authorities approved the expansion of Star’s relationship with some people having reported criminal links. Also, the board members did not inform about the risks involved with money laundering affecting The Star.
- ASIC also alleged that Bekier along with Star’s former company secretary and group counsel Paula Martin and former chief casino officer Greg Hawkins breached their duties by not addressing the money laundering risks that arose from dealing with Asian gambling junket Suncity and its funder and by continuing to deal with them despite being aware of criminal links.
- As per ASIC, Paula Martin and former chief financial officer Harry Theodore knowingly allowed misleading statements furnished before National Australia Bank related to the use of debit cards issued by China Union Pay International Ltd (CUP) at NAB ATMs on Star’s premises. These statements concealed the fact that Star was allowing CUP cards to be used for gambling, which was prohibited by CUP. ASIC stated that more than $900 million was obtained by Star customers using CUP cards from 2013 to 2019. ASIC alleged that Bekier failed to report this to Star’s board.
It should be noted that breaches of these rules and duties, under the section 180 of the Corporations Act, attract a maximum penalty of AU$1,050,000 per breach.
