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Updated March 5, 2026 \u2014 12:20pm,first published March 5, 2026 \u2014 9:38am<\/p>\n
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n Save this article for later<\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.<\/p>\n Got it<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Former Star Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier has been found to have breached his duties as a director of the embattled casino operator, but in a landmark Federal Court judgment, Justice Michael Lee found that the board\u2019s other high-profile directors did not.<\/p>\n His judgment clears former chairman John O\u2019Neill, and other members of the board of allegations that they did not pay sufficient attention to the risks of money laundering and criminal association that have led the casino operator to the verge of collapse.<\/p>\n Lee said ASIC had not established that O\u2019Neil, Richard Sheppard, Katie Lahey, Sally Pitkin, Richard Sheppard, Gerard Bradley, Benjamin Heap or Zlatko Todorcevski had \u201ceach failed to exercise their powers and discharge their duties\u201d.<\/p>\n But his judgment expressed disquiet over the non-executive directors\u2019 submissions, noting that the \u201cmore self-congratulatory submissions of the non-executive directors are jarring\u201d given the casino\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n But Justice Lee also defended the directors against hindsight bias, quoting philosopher Soren Kierkegaard: \u201cLife can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n Justice Lee found Bekier had breached his directors duties in relation to his actions in response to a damning KPMG report detailing how Star was falling short of its anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing obligations.<\/p>\n Justice Lee\u2019s breach findings also related to Bekier\u2019s response to the information about notorious junket operator Sun City and its conduct at the Salon 95 gaming room where bundles of cash were handled in contravention of gambling laws.<\/p>\n And while Bekier was found to be a \u201cgood witness\u201d under initial cross-examination – ultimately his evidence was found to be \u201cunconvincing\u201d in some respects, \u201ccontradictory and, on occasion, highly improbable.\u201d<\/p>\n The judgement also found that Star\u2019s former chief legal officer Paula Martin also \u201cfailed to exercise her powers or discharge her duties as an officer of Star\u201d.<\/p>\n The case could still have profound implications for corporate Australia, relating to how much trust directors can place in management assurances that a business is running well.<\/p>\n \u201cDirectors and officers are a critical part of the conduct of business in Australia. Their duty is to understand the operations of the company over which they preside, and the particular risks faced by the business,\u201d ASIC chairman Joe Longo said at the time the legal action was announced.<\/p>\n Each breach of director\u2019s duties carries a penalty of up to $1,050,000.<\/p>\n The watchdog had accused the former directors and executives who reported to the board of being blind to the red flags that pointed to money laundering and illicit activities<\/a> at its casino.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The trial was conducted last year with ASIC\u2019s lawyers telling the court of staff handling bags of $50 notes tied together with elastic bands being delivered in a blue Esky bag, and operators blocking the view of CCTV cameras with a blanket.<\/p>\n Related Article They also alleged the casino cultivated and maintained business relationships with overseas junket operators \u201cdespite having substantial evidence that those junkets were engaged in illicit activities which may involve money laundering and links to organised crime.\u201d<\/p>\n While Star executives failed to provide the board with all the troubling information about Sun City and other junkets, ASIC told the court that each of Star\u2019s directors also failed to take reasonable steps to oversee its executive team. They rejected that and were successful.<\/p>\n Last Friday evening, Star Entertainment released its unaudited accounts for the December half-year, reporting a $109.7 million loss as revenue continued to decline at its operations in Sydney and Queensland under the weight of regulatory reforms \u2013 including cash limits at Star Sydney \u2013 in response to the scandals which led to the ASIC charges.<\/p>\n The current board reiterated that there is material uncertainty regarding the group\u2019s ability to continue as a going concern, as the federal court determines the Austrac penalty for breaches of anti-money laundering provisions.<\/p>\n Star said it has made provisions related to the ASIC case and the defence costs it pays for the defendants, but it has not made the financial figure public.<\/p>\n The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/8e811b4f93f76e9665c001275ec04b1d13b2e313.jpeg\")
Former Star Entertainment chief executive Matt Bekier (left) and former chairman John O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n![\"Steve](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/a71dddb45f637f3544c29cffa2597849aec36f28.jpeg\")
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Colin Kruger<\/a> is a senior business reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated March 5, 2026 \u2014 12:20pm,first published March 5, 2026 \u2014 9:38am Save You have reached your maximum…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-519475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}