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Published in Melbourne since 1854$4.20 SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2019 theage.com.au

I N D E P E N D E N T . A L W A Y S .

COACHINGBLUESPRINTHow David Teague has shaken up CarltonSPORT PAGE 54

GNThas

WHAT MAKES A FATHER?

Should a sperm donor have legal rights over the children?

GOOD WEEKEND

WARNER’SREDEMPTIONFrom public enemy No.1

to hope of the sideSPORT PAGE 58

EXCLUSIVE Casino engaged triads embroiled in money laundering, human traff icking and drug running

CROWN UNMASKED Gambling with gangsters INSIGHT PAGES 30-33

CROWN’S LINKS TO ASIAN CRIME

Continued Page 10

Nick McKenzie, Nick Toscanoand Grace Tobin

Casino and hotel operator CrownResorts went into business with touroperators backed by Asia’s mostpowerful organised crimesyndicates as part of its program toattract Chinese high rollers to itscasinos.

Crown, which is part-owned byone of Australia’s richest men,James Packer, may also haveexploited weaknesses inAustralia’s visa processes to flyVIP gamblers into Australiawithout sufficient vetting.

An investigation by The Age,The Sydney Morning Herald and60 Minutes can reveal that acriminal syndicate known as“The Company” used Crown-linked bank accounts and high-roller rooms to launder itsfunds, with Crown licensingand paying syndicatemembers to generate turnoverin its Melbourne and Perthcasinos.

Multiple sources claimCrown’s desire to reap millions

Gobbo client freed, seeking compensationEXCLUSIVE

Tammy Mills

Continued Page 3

FarukOrmanlast night.

JOHN SILVESTER Page 4

Faruk Orman realised he was freewhen he first tasted the crisp win-ter air.

He stood in the courtyard of theSupreme Court in Melbourne, itsstone walls around him, and askedhis lawyers if he was in some kindof internal custody area of thecourt.

No, it was a public area, they told

him. The people walking past werefree, and so was he.

He looked up at the sky and tooka breath. ‘‘Fresh, crystal air.That’s what it was,’’ he said, speak-ing to The Age in a hotel room yes-terday afternoon.

The 37-year-old was yesterdayacquitted of the 2002 ganglandmurder of Victor Peirce after whatthe Court of Appeal determinedwas a serious miscarriage ofjustice.

His is the first conviction over-turned in what has become knownas the Informer 3838 scandal. Hiscase was so contaminated by theconduct of barrister-turned-police-informer Nicola Gobbo thatafter 12 years behind bars he wasfreed.

Mr Orman will now launch amultimillion-dollar compensationsuit against Victoria Police, but as

Continued Page 10

Woman jailed wasdoing her job

Nick McKenzie, Grace Tobinand Nick Toscano

Jenny Jiang will live forever with thefallout of the four weeks she spent ina Chinese prison with drug dealers,

pickpockets andprostitutes thanks tothe actions of heremployer –Australia’s biggestcasino company,Crown Resorts.

Ms Jiang,pictured, who livesin Shanghai, nowhas a criminalrecord whichshe says inChina is “a bigissue”.

She is the first

PM vow ontech giantsThe Morrison government has signalled it will not buckle to pressure from powerful digital giants and is committ ed to regulating Google and Facebook after the release of a landmark inquiry by Australia’s consumer watchdog.

REPORT PAGE 6

‘They must be held to account’

JOSH FRYDENBERG COMMENT PAGE 7

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10 THE AGE SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2019 NEWS

Crown casino’s secretBad Company: The casino,the triad and the junkets

Roy Moo, a licensed Crown junket representative, caught on CCTV on his way to collect cash in a plastic bag.

Mr Moo dumps the bag-load of cash at a Crown

cashier.

CROWN UNMASKED

From Page 1

Mr Moo told police itwas easier to move

“black money”through Crown than

a bank.

from the Chinese high-rollermarket led it to not only breachChinese anti-gambling laws, but topartner with junket operators withlinks to drug traffickers, moneylaunderers, human traffickers andChinese government influenceagents.

Junket operators are agents whospecialise in marketing overseascasinos in China, recruiting high-stakes punters, arranging credit forthem and, later, chasing bad debts.

Industry analysts, the USgovernment and Australian lawenforcement officials say somejunkets are legitimate, but others arecontrolled by Asian organised crimegroups known as triads.

The Company, an Asian organisedcrime conglomerate run by triadbosses, is estimated to have wreakedmore harm in Australia over the last30 years than any other drugimporter, according to more than adozen serving and former regionalpolicing sources.

A federal police interview withone junket representative secretlyworking for The Company – RoyMoo – reveals he told investigatorshe was hired by The Company’sAustralian network “because of hiscontacts at Crown Casino”, “mutualtrust,” and because launderingmoney through the casino was“easier than using a bank’’.

The 2013 interview was releasedto The Age, Sydney Morning Heraldand 60 Minutes in April by aVictorian judge. More recently, closeties between The Company andother Crown-licensed junkets havebeen confirmed by law enforcementsources.

For instance, a high-rankingMacau member of The Company,whom The Age and the Herald haveelected not to name, has beendirectly licensed by Crown tooperate in Australia as one ofCrown’s junkets. He was paid$250,000 by Crown in 2016 in returnfor bringing high rollers to Australia.

In one trip in August 2015, thiscriminal identity flew into CrownPerth on a private jet with otherCompany members, including anotorious triad drug trafficker fromGuangdong. The group turned over$800million in a single trip,according to multiple sources.

Crown’s attempts to attract highrollers to its casinos in Melbourne

and Perth was the target of asweeping Chinese government anti-corruption crackdown in October2016 resulting in the arrest of 19serving and former Crownemployees in China.

Melbourne father-of-two JasonO’Connor – Crown’s head of‘‘international VIP’’ programs andone of its top executives – was amongthose convicted of promotinggambling, a criminal offence onmainland China where gambling isoutlawed.

Sentenced to jail terms, O’Connorand two other employees were thelast to be released from a Shanghaidetention centre, in August 2017.

In a statement, Crown Resortsdenied any breach of China law andsaid it had not been charged with anoffence in China. It ‘‘refutes anysuggestion that it knowinglyexposed its staff to the risk ofdetention in China’’.

Law firm Maurice Blackburnlodged the class action againstCrown after its share price plungedwhen the employees were detainedin China.

In addition to its own marketingstaff, Crown for years relied heavilyon junket operators to promote itscasinos to Chinese high rollers,arranging them lines of credit and,later, chasing bad debts. Suchactivities are illegal in China.

Complex financial transactions,organised by the junkets, allows highrollers to gamble with millions ofdollars, even though it is illegal totake more than $3000 off theChinese mainland. Some of thejunkets take advantage of thisgambling money to launder theirown funds or those of crimesyndicates.

The Company’s primary businessis ice and cocaine trafficking but theAsia-based organisation hasrepeatedly exploited Crown’sreliance on junket operators tolaunder drug funds through Crownbank accounts or high-roller rooms.

The Company’s members havecontrolled or exerted significantinfluence over at least three Crown-licensed junkets operating inAustralia but headquartered inMacau or Hong Kong.

The exploitation of Crown by TheCompany for money laundering wasfirst exposed in 2013 when federalagents arrested a licensed Crownjunket representative, Roy Moo, anddemanded Crown hand over CCTVof his transactions.

The vision, obtained via courtorder, shows Mr Moo dumpingbundles of cash from a plastic bag ata Crown cashier to wire via Crown’saccounts to Hong Kong where it wascollected by The Company’s drugshipment operations manager.Regional law enforcement sourcessay it is likely the money was used tofinance further drug trafficking intoAustralia.

The Crown junket operator MrMoo told police it was easier to move“black money” through Crown thana bank. He was jailed by theVictorian Supreme Court forlaundering almost $1million in fundsfor The Company.

But Mr Moo was quickly replacedby the other junkets controlled bythe Company and which enable itand other triad groups to continue tolaunder cash through Crown,according to serving and former lawenforcement officials from acrossthe region.

On its relationships with junketoperators and individuals, Crown’sstatement said, ‘‘Crown does notcomment on its business operationswith particular individuals orbusinesses,’’ but that it has acomprehensive’’ anti-moneylaundering and counter-terrorismfinancing program in place, ‘‘whichis subject to regulatory supervisionby AUSTRAC’’.

James Packer committed to sellhalf his stake in Crown in May toMacau gaming magnate LawrenceHo for $1.76billion. Through hislawyers, Mr Packer said last week he“adamantly” insisted he had noknowledge of the conduct of thecompany’s operations in China.

Mr Packer, who has suffered frommental health issues, has not held anexecutive position at the companysince 2012. He was chairman ofCrown Resorts until August, 2015,and a board member until Decemberthat year. He played only a “passiverole” at Crown, according to thelawyer’s letter.

Crown’s Barangaroo casino hotelproject in Sydney is due to open in2022 and will depend on the Chinesehigh-roller market for a substantialportion of its profits.

Money moreFrom Page 1

employee of James Packer’sCrown Resorts to break ranks andtalk about what happened to herand her colleagues in October,2016.

She claims that after setting upoffices across mainland China in2010, Crown started to give hugeincentives to its staff to breakChinese law and then abandonedthem as authorities closed in.

Her claims about incentives arebacked up in Chinese courtdocuments, which describe howCrown’s sales staff ‘‘obtained theirrespective incomes’’ as‘‘commissions’’ to be paid out whentheir high-roller customersreached ‘‘appraisal targets’’ bygambling billions of dollars.

Her revelations are alsosignificant because they raise freshquestions about the fitness ofCrown to hold gaming licences, and

cast doubt over the corporategovernance practices within thegaming company.

Ms Jiang, along with 18colleagues, was arrested onOctober 13 and 14, 2016. They wereheld in custody and then convictedof breaching mainland Chineselaws that ban gambling and itspromotion. This includes the luringof groups of high rollers to offshorecasinos.

She also believes Crown’spromise to bring revenue to theAustralian government via itsgaming operations led to therubber stamping of visas forhundreds of Chinese nationals –vouched for by Crown – becausethey promised to gamble tens orhundreds of millions of dollars onsingle trips to its casinos inMelbourne or Perth.

She said Australian consulateoffices in China helped Crown getfast-tracked visas, and rubber

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SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2019 THE AGE 11NEWS

links to Asian crime

CROWN CROW

N CROWN CROWN

Needs to smuggle moneyout of China

Deposits Yuan(and/or receives credit)

from Junket operator in China.

Has access to off-shore funds

Provides Chinese high rollerswith services including:

• Luxury travel and accommodation• Entertainment

• Non-negotiable casino chips

Pays out on winnings and unspent money.Pays Junket operators a commission

on gambling turnover.

Since Chinese courts don’trecognise or enforce paymentson gambling debts, junkets may

turn to alternatives to collecttheir debts, including violent

criminal triads.

Balances the ledger, with debtsaccrued in Australia repaid in

China, though money does notphysically change location.

CROWN CASINO

CHINESE HIGH ROLLER JUNKET OPERATOR

JUNKET OPERATOR

HOW IT WORKS

Former Crown employee Jenny Jiang being arrested in China in 2016

Through his lawyers, James Packer said he

“adamantly” insisted he had no knowledge of the

conduct of the company’s operations in China.

ON 60 MINUTESFull interview with former Crown employee Jenny Jiang.TOMORROW FROM 8.45PM

important than staff: jailed worker talks

Crown regarded itsstaff like a “used

napkin you throw inthe trash can”.

Jenny Jiang, jailed former Crownemployee

stamped some applications.When it all came tumbling down,

Ms Jiang told a joint Age, SydneyMorning Herald and 60 Minutesinvestigation that Crown regardedits staff like a “used napkin youthrow in the trash can”.

“Money is way more importantthan the staff,” she said.

She refused a $60,000 paymentoffer from Crown, which included acondition that she stay quiet. She istaking a significant risk in breakingher silence to tell the story of apolice crackdown still cloaked insecrecy.

Ms Jiang’s exclusive interview —to be aired on 60 Minutes on Sunday— comes amid separate revelationsthat Crown worked with touroperators backed by internationalorganised crime syndicates,including a triad-controlled drugtrafficking group.

In a statement, Crown Resortssaid that it could not comment on

specific allegations, though itdenied any breach of Chinese lawand had not been charged with anoffence in China. Crown ‘‘refutesany suggestion that it knowinglyexposed its staff to the risk ofdetention in China’’.

Law firm Maurice Blackburn haslodged a class action against Crownafter its share price plunged whenthe Crown employees weredetained. Crown is defending theaction, which alleges the companyknew or should have known aboutthe risks.

On its relationships with junketoperators and individuals, Crown’sstatement said ‘‘Crown does notcomment on its business operationswith particular individuals orbusinesses’’. However, it has acomprehensive’’ anti-moneylaundering and counter-terrorismfinancing program in place, ‘‘whichis subject to regulatory supervisionby AUSTRAC,’’ the statement said.

A lawyer for the casino’s mostprominent shareholder, JamesPacker, said Mr Packer“adamantly” insisted that he had“no . . . knowledge” of Crown’sconduct in China that led to theprosecution of its employees. Hehas not been an executive at thecompany since 2012 and resigned as

chairman of Crown Resorts inAugust, 2015, and as a boardmember in December that year. Hehad a “passive role” at Crown,according to the lawyer’s letter.

Mr Packer issued a statement atthe time of the arrests saying hewas “deeply concerned” for theworkers’ welfare.

But Ms Jiang has accused Crownof not only disregarding Chineselaw but also the welfare of itsChinese employees as seniormanagers offered sales staff hugebonuses to lure Chinese high-rollers to gamble at Crown’sAustralian casinos.

Multiple internal sources saidthe biggest VIP gamblers wereoffered help securing immigrationto Australia, their children’sschooling in Australia and propertyinvestments in Melbourne andSydney.

She said this illegal behaviourwas at the centre of Crown’sChinese operation, which shehelped administer between 2011and 2017.

“High management kept pushingevery sales [staff member] to meet

more customers, get morebusiness,” recalls Jiang.

Staff who didn’t perform weresacked, according to Ms Jiang. Andultimately, when Chinese lawenforcement caught up with them,they were detained, charged andconvicted.

Ms Jiang said that even as itbecame likely Chinese police wereclosing in, Crown directed itsChinese sales staff to keeppromoting gambling, but to do so‘‘under the radar’’ and to refuse toassist police in the event they wereraided.

Multiple sources have alsoconfirmed that prior to the arrests,Crown told its Chinese staff tofalsely claim to Chinese authoritiesthey were not working for Crown inChina but were working in otherlocations.

Crown has maintained it workedclosely with Australian officials tofree its employees.

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