“Within a very short time, the commission discovered that for years Crown Melbourne had engaged in conduct that is, in a word, disgraceful.”
So begins the 652-page report of the royal commission into Crown’s fitness to hold its Melbourne casino licence, conducted by retired judge Ray Finkelstein QC.
He goes on: “This is a convenient shorthand for describing conduct that was variously illegal, dishonest, unethical and exploitative.”
And on: “alarming”, “callous”, “appalling”, “damning”, “distressing” appear in the executive summary, with observations such as “the board fell asleep at the wheel” and “many senior executives were indifferent to their ethical, moral and sometimes legal obligations”.
It’s hardly surprising then that Finkelstein concluded: “It was inevitable that Crown Melbourne would be found unsuitable to hold its casino licence. No other finding was open.”
As Patricia Bergin had found in Sydney, Crown failed every single test of integrity, honesty, legal compliance and even the faintest shred of justification to continue holding the social licence that a casino operator surely requires. It has been exposed — again — as a criminal organisation, not a company.
Obviously, then, its casino licence for Crown Melbourne will be torn up and the doors closed, to save the public from any further exposure to the stinking cancer that Crown is.
Ha-ha-ha, no. Of course not. Crown will keep its casino licence, thank you very much. Having given that question very detailed consideration (as Finkelstein observed, it was really the only thing he had to think about, given how obvious Crown’s unfitness is), the commissioner decided that that was the best outcome.
Why? Two reasons: “The real risk of significant harm to the Victorian economy and innocent third parties” and “the royal commission’s belief that Crown Melbourne has the will and the capacity to reform itself”.
The casino will be given a special manager, a senior barrister, who will oversee Crown’s management for two years. They will have open access to everything and veto powers over the company’s board.
The government has promised other measures to rein in the future risk of finding ourselves here again.
Let history not discourage us from the evergreen hope and expectation that, one day, a casino will be run by people who are not criminals when they start or criminals when they finish. Even when we know, thanks to two independent judicial investigations, that the company running our casinos is a criminal cartel, there is no reason to not believe that it will remake itself clean.
And now, having fixed Crown, we turn to that other shining star in the casino galaxy: Star.
Two reasons: “The real risk of significant harm to the Victorian economy and innocent third parties” and “the royal commission’s belief that Crown Melbourne has the will and the capacity to reform itself”
This does not only apply to casinos. It comes up with any corporation or business that is found doing very bad things. If such an entity is found guilty the punishments available will typically hurt third parties quite significantly. If a big corporation ius subjected to a trivial fine it has little effect. If the fine is big enough to really hurt the corporation, it is likely some or all its employees will lose their jobs despite being too junior to have had any responsibility; the share price will collapse, hurting its investors even though many might have had no involvement or knowledge of the offences being committed; and other companies working with or for the corporation lose business and might go broke through no fault of their own. The pain will be felt mostly by relatively innocent parties.
The way to deal with corporate misbehaviour and crimes is to target individuals. Senior management and board members should be personally liable for the decisions they have taken or endorsed, whether they are involved actively and directly or not. They should be fined and in the worst cases jailed. Nothing else makes any sense. But our government would never consider making that possible. It knows who it works for.
I agree, all directors should be ‘accountable’ persons. Currently, Crown is the largest employer in Victoria.If the licence had been immediately cancelled, I suspect the Court appeals would have gone on for years. A two year ‘suspended sentence’ is not ideal but allows for a period of adjustment by current employees and investors. This situation has been going on for many years so both Labor and Liberals have to share the shame and the blame..,
Politicians shudder…. This conversation must be ringing alarm bells with the ScoMo fiasco.
Crown will go broke if money-laundering is prevented. That’s what casino’s do. The mums and the pensioners pay the light bill, the addicts and small-time crooks pay the wages. but the profits (and slush funds to the cops, the politicians, the minders, drug runners et al) come from the money laundering. Its such a wonderful win-win – the casino takes its chunk, gives the clean cash to the crook and Dan gets the government’s cut……………..
So true… this basic concept is the foundation, building and keystones to the formation of Las Vegas’ ever expanding business model. Woe betide the person that seeks to undermine this structure.
So what exactly would they have to have done to lose the Licence ?
Human sacrifices in the casino? Donating to the Green Party? There must be something so egregious the licence would be removed, else why have the power to remove it?
It’s difficult to imagine. Pretty much every litany of crimes and criminals have laundered money at Crown. Rooted Daniel Andrew’s dog, perhaps? On camera, and in front of Ray Finkelstein in court.
Probably have female employees raped in their corporate office after work drinks. Or maybe their head lawyer being the biggest recipient of unknown funds. Or maybe sending funds into the hands of people who guarantee the rort continues…
Im so sorry… I’ve mistakenly believed we were talking of the greatest office of the nation… my bad.
I’m dying to hear a meaningful reply to this.
As Euclid said (I think).
“Give me a large enough pile of money and I will move the Earth.
A remark like that concerning levers was made by Archimedes. Euclid’s speciality was geometry, while Archimedes had a range of skills, including mechanics and the invention of various remarkable devices.
I have no evidence, but if I was a betting man, I bet Star is no better.
A massive corporation is shown to be criminal and making a motza by those crimes. Nobody involved in the criminality suffers any real consequences.
A human refugee is deemed to be criminal by being a refugee. Then suffers years of degradation, abuse, brutality an imprisonment without ever been found guilty of anything.
That’s the gift of Capitalism. A fictional person with a business case is never punished. But the most needy and powerless are punished mercilessly.