Court hearing set for June 2017
Aussie gaming giant Tabcorp, recently implicated in a Cambodian bribery case, now faces new and unrelated “dirty money” charges, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre claims the betting company failed to tell regulators that more than 30 TAB accounts were opened under false names and used to “filter fraudulent credit card funds for organized crime figures,” the Herald reported. A hearing first set for September has been pushed back to June 2017. In the interim, Austral is expected to file more rule-breaking charges against Tabcorp.
Last November, Tabcorp created a new risk department and senior executive Kerry Winlock resigned as head of corporate, legal and regulatory after 10 years with the company. In a filing to the Australian Stock Exchange, the company stated that it “adopted a new anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing program, which included substantial investment in enhanced capability, processes, systems and controls that underpin this new program.”
Tabcorp is embroiled in a second case involving charges it paid $200,000 to the family of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Seen as the company sought to enter that jurisdiction. In March, as news of the scandal broke, TABCORP’s former CEO Elmer Funke-Kupper, who was at the helm when the alleged improprieties took place, resigned his role as CEO of the Australian Stock Exchange. Funke-Kupper also took a leave of absence from his position as a non-executive director on the Tabcorp board. He has said he is undergoing “trial by media.”
