The Star Entertainment Group’s former treasurer has told an inquiry that she was unethical and dishonest in her dealings with a bank investigating millions of dollars worth of suspicious spending on gambling.
Sarah Scopel made the confessions while giving evidence xjmtzywon day two of a royal commission-style inquiry into The Star’s compliance with its casino licence and whether it remains free from criminal influence or exploitation, among other factors.
The inquiry was told that in late 2019 Ms Scopel and The Star’s senior officials were aware the People’s Bank of China and financial services company China Union had raised concerns UnionPay debit cards were being used by high rollers to spend up to $20m in some cases at the casino.
Gambling is illegal in China and the UnionPay cards cannot be used for that purpose; however, The Star was accepting payments from the cards at hotels attached to its Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane casinos and later transferring the money to patrons gambling accounts.
The inquiry was told that The Star’s bank, NAB, started asking questions of Ms Scopel and her colleagues when it received a request from UnionPay for more information about card transactions.
“I accept I was aware there was, potentially, that there was a link,” Ms Scopel said when asked by counsel assisting the inquiry Naomi Sharp SC if she was aware the China Union debit cards were being used to fund gambling.
In response to the questions from NAB, Ms Scopel told the inquiry that The Star responded with misleading answers that made it look like the large spending transactions were non-gaming related and could have been for jewellery, cars, accommodation or cruises.
“I was concerned that if I didn’t provide the response The Star wanted, which was consistent with the previous agreed approach to responding … for a long period of time, that it could impact my employment,” Ms Scopel said.
When Ms Sharp read out parts of The Star’s code of conduct, Ms Scopel agreed that she did not report unethical behaviour and engaged in conduct that could have brought the organisation into disrepute.
“Your behaviour towards NAB in relation to its queries about the NAB transactions was dishonest wasn’t it?” Ms Sharp asked.
Ms Scopel answered “yes” to that question and agreed with Ms Sharp’s assertion that the conduct was “unethical”.
The inquiry was previously told that $900m had been brought into Australia disguised as hotel expenses using the debit card system that was open to exploitation and was hidden from intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.
