Crown Resorts director Andrew Demetriou denies dishonesty at casino inquiry
Crown Resorts director and former AFL boss Andrew Demetriou has been accused of being dishonest in evidence he has given to an inquiry into the casino empire after denying reading from notes despite video evidence suggesting he was doing so.
Demetriou has admitted that he had written notes in front of him when giving evidence on Monday, and reading from the notes when he gave an answer about potential money laundering at Crown.
However, he denied other evidence was based on notes.
He was also grilled about inaccuracies in the evidence he gave on money laundering and his close relationship with Crown’s biggest shareholder, James Packer, including an email in which he told Packer he would look out for the company’s best interests but “most importantly” those of the casino magnate.
Demetriou admitted having a note containing information about the term “culture” that he downloaded from the internet, but denied reading from it during his evidence on Monday.
“You wrote them down because you couldn’t remember them without being reminded,” counsel assisting the commission, Scott Aspinall, said to Demetriou on Tuesday.
“No, that’s not correct,” Demetriou responded.
“You weren’t acting with honesty and integrity, were you?” Aspinall said.
“Respectfully, I disagree, Mr Aspinall,” Demetriou said.
The inquiry, called by the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority following a series of publications by the Nine Entertainment group last year, is investigating issues including whether Crown and its associates are fit to hold the license for a new casino on prime waterfront land at Barangaroo in Sydney that is due to open by the end of the year.
Aspinall twice played Demetriou footage of his evidence on Monday in which he looked down while giving his evidence and appeared to be reading.
However, Demetriou denied he was doing so.
“That’s not true Mr Demetriou and you know it’s not true,” Aspinall said.
Commissioner Patricia Bergin, who during Demetriou’s evidence put her head in her hands, put it to Demetriou that he could “see yourself look down”.
“I did see myself madam commissioner, but I suspect I looked down for much of the day,” Demetriou said. Bergin was sceptical.
“I’m not so sure about that, Mr Demetriou,” she said.
She again asked Demetriou what he was looking at while answering the question.
“I was looking at what was before me, which was basically the desk, madam commissioner,” he said.
Bergin told Demetriou that “it looks like you are being prompted secretly” but it was also open to her to make a finding that the notes were intended as a neutral prompt to help him give accurate evidence.
Demetriou admitted that his evidence on Monday that there were 100 to 102 suspicious transactions at two Crown subsidiaries through which high-roller payments were funnelled, Riverbank and Southbank, was wrong.
The note from which Demetriou admitted reading when giving his answer on Monday referred to 102 “instances” of suspected money laundering.
However, each instance involved customers making multiple deposits within 72 hours, each of which was under the $10,000 threshold at which a transaction needs to be reported to the financial intelligence agency, Austrac.
Aspinall put it to Demetriou that this meant there had to have been at
least 204 transactions.
“Yes, Mr Aspinall,” Demetriou said. Bergin said that if Demetriou’s use of documents had not been discovered she would have been left with the impression that his evidence about there being just 104 transactions was truthful.
“Oh Mr Demetriou, why did you do it?” she asked.
Aspinall read from an email chain between Packer and Demetriou in which Packer, who at the time owned more than 46% of Crown, said the company should accept a takeover bid from US casino operator Wynn Resorts.
In one email, Demetriou signed off by telling Packer he was committed to “serving the best interests of Crown, and, most importantly, you”.
Aspinall asked Demetriou how this was consistent with his duties to the company as a whole.
“I think it’s completely consistent,” Demetriou said.
He said he did not say “more” but
“most” and he had a duty to serve the
interests of all shareholders.
“So you were misleading Mr Packer, were you?” Aspinall asked.
“No,” Demetriou said.
Asked why he used the word “most”, he said: “No particular reason Mr Aspinall, I wouldn’t read too much into it.”
Bergin said that if she did decide that Demetriou was serious in his email, it would raise the question of whether he was genuinely an independent director.
“There may be, madam commissioner,” Demetriou said.
Demetriou was also asked about his role at failed education broker Acquire Learning, where he was chairman of the advisory board.
He said he was currently in settlement talks with the liquidators of Acquire, who have sued him in the federal court over payments the company made to him.
The ILGA inquiry continues.