Crown settles Australian money laundering case
Crown Resorts has agreed to a A$450 million (US$294 million) penalty after it failed to prevent money laundering and criminal activity at its casinos, Australia's financial crime regulator said on Tuesday. In reaching the agreement, Crown has admitted that it operated in breach of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 (AML/CTF Act), AUSTRAC said. Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth casinos failed to appropriately assess the money laundering and terrorism financing risks they faced, and to identify and respond to changes in risk over time, the regulator added. "Crown's contraventions of the AML/CTF Act meant that a range of obviously high-risk practices, behaviours and customer relationships were allowed to continue unchecked for many years," said AUSTRAC boss Nicole Rose. The deal reached is subject to approval from the Federal Court, and will be heard on July 10-11. "The company that committed these unacceptable, historic breaches is far removed from the company that exists today," Crown said in a statement. Australia's largest casino operator was bought out for US$6.3 billion by private equity giant Blackstone last year. (Reuters)