While proceedings are still ongoing against nine other Star officers and directors, two former Star Entertainment Group directors received penalties in Federal Court today.
The group’s former chief casino officer Gregory Hawkins was ordered to pay a $180,000 penalty and was disqualified from managing corporations for 18 months.
Former chief financial officer Harry Theodore was ordered to pay a $60,000 penalty and disqualified from managing corporations for nine months.
It’s understood that both former directors pleaded guilty in the action brought against them and 9 other current and former directors and officers of Star in December 2022 by the regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) for alleged breaches of their duties under s180 of the Corporations Act.
The action against Hawkins included approving an agreement between Star and the gambling junket Suncity in 2018, which provided Suncity exclusive access to a private gaming room in the Sydney casino known as "Salon 95" when he knew that Suncity's representatives exposed Star to the risk of breaching the law.
Meanwhile, Theodore was found to have breached the Corporations Act by failing to prevent Star from sending correspondence to National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) on 7 November, 2019, which contained inaccurate, incomplete and misleading representations.
Last week, the Federal Court hearing the case against former Star Entertainment executives expressed frustration at not being informed that defendants would be called to give evidence by their lawyers.
It’s understood that only former CEO Matt Bekier is likely to take the stand, which means the defence case may revert to the production of written evidence.
The remaining defendants include Bekier, company secretary Paula Martin, former chairs John O’Neill and Benjamin Heap, plus former high profile directors Sally-Anne Pitkin, Kathleen Lahey, Gerard Bradley, Wallace Sheppard and Zlatko Todorcevski.
ASIC’s legal team have now completed their submissions that the defendants breached the Corporations Act by failing to discharge their duties with reasonable care and diligence.
The main case has been adjourned until 5 March.
At the time of writing, Star Entertainment Group Ltd's (ASX: SGR) share price was 14 cents, with a market capitalisation of approximately $415.96 million.
