Counsels assisting the inquiry have submitted this happened because Mr Packer established a"working group"with executives from Crown's international VIP team and CPH executive and Crown board representative Michael Johnston,who received some vital information that never made it to Crown's CEO,risk management committee or to other board members.
Counsels assisting have said that Mr Packer and CPH's"deleterious"influence over Crown is one of the key reasons the company should be found unfit to keep the licence for its new Sydney casino,which is set to open next month.
But CPH's lawyer Noel Hutley SC told the inquiry on Thursday it was unfair to say Mr Johnston was complicit in the risk management failure that led to the arrests when Crown's VIP team executives Barry Felstead,Jason O'Connor,Michael Chen and its former CEO Rowen Craigie also failed to escalate important information through the board.
"There has obviously been a breakdown in reporting,quite clearly,"Mr Hutley said.
"[But] these structures failed without any assistance from the VIP working group - they just failed."
Commissioner Patricia Bergin challenged Mr Hutley on this point,saying that Mr Felstead thought he had escalated warning signs by telling Mr Johnston,and it was a"fact"that the working group seemed to"blur the lines"for executives.