“Warning signs and red flags indicative of money laundering were being waved at Crown from at least January 2014,"Mr Aspinall said."Moreover,senior executives within Crown were aware of these warnings and yet ... the accounts continued to operate."
Loading
The inquiry has heard that ANZ Bank raised its concerns in 2014 about suspicious transactions taking place and eventually shut Crown's accounts over fears it was being used to launder the proceeds of crime.
Crown then moved to the Commonwealth Bank,where its new accounts were used to bank millions of dollars in deposits which were also indicative of money laundering.
Mr Aspinall said that,because Crown had decided not to register the two shell companies as"reporting entities"with the financial crimes watchdog Austrac,they would not have the normal protections afforded to regulated companies susceptible to abuse by criminals.
"That means that they are subject,just like any ordinary person,to the full rigour of the criminal law,"he said."In effect[those provisions] mean that,at least in Victoria,that if you negligently deal in funds that are the proceeds of crime,that you are guilty of an offence."
Mr Aspinall said the"appalling"position Crown now found itself in"seems to be the consequence of nobody within Crown understanding that was the risk that they put those companies in".
He reserved pointed criticism for Crown's chief executive Ken Barton,who was elevated from chief financial officer to the top job in January,and has said he is leading sweeping reforms of culture,governance and regulatory compliance at Crown.
Mr Barton was alerted to concerns ANZ Bank raised about the accounts in 2014 but,instead of raising the issue internally,tried to convince the bank to keep Crown's accounts open.Mr Barton told the inquiry he did not believe ANZ had raised"serious issues".
"That’s Mr Barton’s view but in my submission it’s wrong. And the fact he can’t see that it’s wrong is of grave concern,"Mr Aspinall said.
Mr Aspinall questioned what message it sent to Crown's rank and file employees that Mr Barton had been promoted following his involvement with the Southbank and Riverbank accounts.
Crown is in the process of shutting down the Riverbank and Southbank shell companies but Mr Aspinall said the fact Crown had still not recognised the seriousness of what had gone wrong showed ILGA could not be confident similar failures would not happen again,Mr Aspinall said.
Crown's cultural problems were also illustrated last month,he said,when its chairman Helen Coonan insisted to shareholders at Crown's AGM that it had not failed to protect itself against money laundering,despite telling the inquiry two days earlier ithad facilitated and "enabled" the criminal practice.
Counsel assisting Naomi Sharp,SC,said that Crown’s attempts to clean up its act were insufficient to address the deep-seated culture of dysfunction and"arrogant indifference"to regulatory compliance.
In her closing remarks on Monday,Ms Sharp said ILGA could only contemplate approving Crown as a licence holder if it submitted to a rigorous review of its business including governance,due diligence and conflicts of interest,and submitted to a remediation plan that reported back to the regulator on how each area of concern had been addressed.
Lawyers representing James Packer and his nominee directors will give their closing submissions from Wednesday,followed by lawyers for Crown next week.
Business Briefing
Start the day with major stories,exclusive coverage and expert opinion from our leading business journalists delivered to your inbox. Sign up for theHerald's here andThe Age's here.