James Packer has struck a deal with the NSW gaming regulator.Credit:Getty
ILGA has been negotiating with Mr Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Holding (CPH) for months over the future of his involvement at Crown,with the gambling regulator confirming on Friday it has decided not to force him to sell down his stake.
The long-running Bergin Inquiry found in February that Mr Packer exercised the “real power” at Crown which distorted proper corporate governance and had “disastrous consequences for the company”.
The inquiry found Crown was unfit to hold the licence for its new casino at Sydney’s Barangaroo,after confirmingreports by this masthead that the company had facilitated money laundering and gone into business with figures linked to organised crime. ILGA has blocked Crown from opening the gaming floors at its $2.2 billion tower until it can prove it has reformed itself.
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ILGA said that “some of the key” undertakings that CPH had agreed to were that it would not seek to have a nominee or any other person appointed as a Crown director before October 2024,and that it would not try to amend Crown’s constitution in a way that would affect the management or operation of Crown.
All three of Mr Packer’s nominee directors resigned following the Bergin report as part of a boardroom clean-out that claimed five directors and chief executive Ken Barton.
CPH has also agreed that it will not enter into any information sharing arrangements with Crown,after the Bergin Inquiry uncovered the free-flow of sensitive financial information between the parties under a secret deal other shareholders did not know about.