Crown staff feared violence from junket partner's gangster associates
Crown Resorts employees based in Macau feared physical violence from gangster associates of one of the casino's "junket" business partners, who was linked to an international drug syndicate.
Crown's chief legal officer Joshua Preston told the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority's probity inquiry on Wednesday that Crown appears to have been linked to "some unsavoury characters" through its partnership with Ng Chi Un, who operated the "Hot Pot junket" until 2015.
Crown Resorts staff feared violence for associates of one of the casino's business partners. Credit:Getty Images
The government inquiry was launched following reports by The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes last year that some of Crown's junket partners, who bring wealthy Chinese gamblers to its Australian casinos, had links to organised crime.
The reports revealed that the Hot Pot junket was linked to an international drug trafficking syndicate known as The Company and arranged for members of the gang to visits Crown's Perth Casino in 2015, where they turned over $800 million in the course of a few days.
Crown rejected the reports as being "unsubstantiated" and part of a "deceitful campaign" against the company.
Mr Preston on Wednesday told the inquiry he made inquires over the past month into Mr Ng and what a senior member of Crown's international VIP division, Ari Lee, meant when he described Mr Ng in a 2015 email as a "very influential character" in Macau in regard to the "underground network".
Mr Preston said Mr Lee did not explain what the "underground network" was, but did tell him that Crown staff in Macau raised concerns about Mr Ng and his associates because they may have been "unsavoury types".
"They had concerns that if a cheque was going to be banked and if it bounced, they would be potentially concerned about some harassment," Mr Preston said.
Commissioner Patricia Bergin, SC, said that she took that to mean "threats of violence", which was "a very troubling aspect of the relationship" Crown had with Mr Ng and showed a probable link to Triad gangs.
“Here was have a situation where if your staff in Macau were to just simply bank a cheque, that they would be under threat of physical violence from what appears to be standover merchants," Commissioner Bergin said.
"One way of protecting Crown staff from standover merchants and violence is to stop dealing with standover merchants, isn't it?"
Mr Preston responded that he agreed "entirely". Crown stopped working with the Mr Ng in 2015, he said, but not because of links to organised crime. He did not explain why the relationship ended.
Commissioner Bergin said it appear Crown now accepted that it did in fact have links to organised crime through Mr Ng. She said that would have been "hugely significant" for its board to know about before they signed a statement dismissing the media reports last year.
"It would appear through this relationship Mr Ng, there is a link to some unsavoury characters," Mr Preston said.
The inquiry will continue public hearings on Wednesday afternoon with evidence from Crown executive Jason O'Connor. Mr O'Connor was one of 19 Crown staff arrested in China in October 2016 for illegally promoting gambling, and spent 10 months in a Shanghai jail.