James Packer agrees to selling Crown shares, admits to “many oversights" at Perth casino

During royal commission hearings on Friday, billionaire James Packer told the Perth Casino Royal Commission that he had no objection to an order from a similar Victorian inquiry this week to sell down his shares in the Crown Group. It was Victorian commissioner Ray Finkelstein who recommended Packer’s company Consolidated Press Holdings sell down its 37% stake in Crown to 5% or less by September 24 in 2024.

Under questioning from counsel assisting the commission, Patricia Cahill, SC, Packer admitted to failings including not attending board meetings for almost four years after he moved overseas and not ensuring the board had a written charter. He also conceded it had been oversight during his time on the Burswood board to not have any directors with expertise in anti-money laundering.

“I did not believe at that point in time that Crown Perth was engaged in money laundering,” Packer said, adding that he had been unaware of any risks of illegal elements until he was notified about the arrests of 19 staff in China for illegally promoting gambling in 2016. 

On this matter, and in a separate development on Friday, Crown Resorts revealed it would pay $125 million to settle a class action launched over its business dealings in China when the 19 staff were arrested.

Crown has been under fire in all three states in Australia it runs casinos, with both NSW and Victorian royal commissions finding the company was unfit to hold licenses in their respective states following revelations of money laundering, however, stopped short of recommending the company’s license be taken away.

Packer was the chairman of both Crown Resorts and Burswood Limited, which was supposed to oversee the Perth casino, from 2007 to 2015. He accepted that his absence as chair of Burswood from 2013 to 2016 may have negatively impacted the culture at the Perth casino and the prospect of matters such as ANZ closing a bank account tied to a subsidiary called Riverbank, which has been linked to money laundering issues, being reported to the board.

Despite Packer saying the Burswood board was supposed to oversee Perth Casino, he said ultimately the parent company made the decisions on big developments and capital expenditure.

He said in hindsight the board should have had a majority of independent directors instead of senior executives and this had been a poor governance structure which meant Crown Perth was overseeing itself and disagreed with previous evidence provided by former director and chair of the Burswood board, John Poynton, that it did not have the power to direct the Perth casino how to operate.

The Perth Casino Royal Commission has heard evidence Crown may have underpaid its tax in WA and did not act to stop money laundering and problem gambling issues.

Packer rejected submissions by Cahill that state agreements regarding the Crown Melbourne operations, establishing it as the company’s flagship casino, could be to the detriment of the Perth casino and commitments to the WA government.

“I was financially and emotionally committed to Perth and I wanted Perth. Perth was very important to me. It was the first casino that PBL had bought outside of Melbourne,” said Packer, as reported by The Age.

During the hearing, Packer was slow to respond at times and often asked for questions to be repeated, The Guardian reports. His written witness statement stated he had suffered significant health issues since 2016 and he continued to take strong medication which he believed impaired his ability to recall past events.