Crown under fire for dragging feet
CROWN Resorts could face legal action from the Victorian gaming regulator over its failure to promptly provide documents in relation to an investigation into the arrest of staff in China, a royal commission has heard.
Appearing as the first witness at the Victorian commission into the suitability of Crown Resorts to maintain its licence to operate its Melbourne Casino, Timothy Bryant from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation said
Crown’s “unsatisfactory” compliance with document requests prevented an investigation from being completed before its deadline in 2018.
“It seemed every time we were close to completing reports in relation to the investigation, subsequent material would be provided,” Mr Bryant said.
The regulator launched a review into the 2016 arrest of 19 Crown staff in China for allegedly illegally promoting gambling to Chinese citizens in 2017, the same year a class action was launched against the James Packer-backed company over the issue.
Mr Bryant said the review began with informal requests for documents but, when this produced little response, he began issuing formal notices.
However, the document presentation was still “piecemeal”, he said.
Mr Bryant also claimed Crown intermittently produced new and crucial information after discovering it in preparation for the class action, implying the company did not undertake a “thorough and diligent” search for information.
“Crown’s disclosure seemed to be influenced by what happened in the class action … It seemed we were at the back end of the priority list,” Mr Bryant said.
When questioned by counsel assisting Penny Neskovcin QC as to whether there were any legal consequences for failing to comply with a statutory notice to produce, Mr Bryant said it was “potentially punishable by way of contempt”.
He said the regulator might now consider legal action.
The commission also discussed Mr Bryant’s submission that executives were not “forthcoming” with their knowledge of the risks to their Chinese staff.
Earlier in the day counsel assisting Adrian Finanzio SC expressed his own frustration with Crown’s late production of documents, telling commission head and former Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein that Crown had dropped thousands of documents last Friday night.
“Approximately 13,000 documents were produced by Crown in response to some notices issued as long ago as March,” he said. “Solicitors assisting have begun the task of examining the documents and to what extent there remains still documents that are required for production.”