Crown Resorts and AUSTRAC agree to $450 million penalty

Crown and financial crimes watchdog AUSTRAC have filed joint submissions with the Federal Court to propose a $450 million penalty over the group’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism failings at Crown Perth and Crown Melbourne.

Crown Resorts chief executive Ciaran Carruthers said the group’s past failings were unacceptable and apologised on behalf of its new owners and leadership.

“Today marks a significant step in the process, and we are pleased to have reached this agreement with AUSTRAC, noting that it is still subject to consideration and approval by the Federal Court, and we await that decision,” Carruthers said.

“The company that committed these unacceptable, historic breaches is far removed from the company that exists today. The Crown of today is committed to harm minimisation and becoming the world leader in the delivery of safe gambling and entertainment.”

The company said it was now focused on its “Future Crown” reform program.

“We take seriously the responsibility we have to the community, to law enforcement, to our industry and stakeholders to ensure that we continue to comply with our anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations,” Carruthers said.

The penalty, if approved, will be the third biggest in the nation’s corporate history, and is about 5 per cent of Crown’s last listed market capitalisation before it was taken private by Blackstone Capital for $8.9 billion in May last year.

Westpac was fined $1.3 billion in 2020 over its breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia was fined $700 million in 2018, but the percentage of their fines pales in comparison to Crown’s when accounting for relative market capitalisation.

The Crown money laundering scandal erupted in 2019 when an Australian TV Channel 9 news investigation revealed that the casino had been infiltrated by international money laundering mafias, prompting several investigations of these establishments in three regions of the country.

Two years later, the Royal Commission on Casino Operators and Licensing in regional Victoria uncovered a number of ethical and legal violations in the operations of the Crown of Melbourne casino, including money laundering.

The Crown of Melbourne also allowed a group of Chinese customers to transfer about A$160m ($104m or €97.3m) from their accounts in China to a casino hotel between 2012 and 2016, according to the Commission.

Those transfers from China cost Melbourne's Crown casino a fine of A$80 million (US$52 million or €48.7 million)