Queensland government endorsed Star casino stake for Hong Kong company with Chinese Triad links

August 22, 2022 Crime & Legal Industry Updates

A key shareholder in Australia’s most expensive casino development has a long history of association with organised crime figures and people blacklisted by gambling regulators around the world, an ABC investigation has confirmed.

Chow Tai Fook, controlled by the powerful Cheng family in Hong Kong, was endorsed by the Queensland government in 2015 as a fit and proper partner in its new $3.8 billion casino development at Queen’s Wharf.

Now the man appointed as probity adviser on the project by the Queensland government has told ABC Investigations he knew nothing of the company’s criminal associations.

Former Queensland auditor-general Len Scanlan said the revelations were a significant red flag.

“It is news to me,” he said.

“You know what you know and you don’t know what you don’t know. I had no knowledge about those parties.”

When asked if he would have backed approval of the bid had he known about the company’s criminal associates, he said: “Of course not, no.”

Not only is Chow Tai Fook a 25 per cent shareholder in the casino, it also owns 50 per cent of the surrounding apartment towers.

It will also earn commissions from Star for every VIP gambler it brings to the casino when it opens next year.

ABC Investigations can reveal Chow Tai Fook and associated companies have been linked to Chinese organised crime for decades.

One of these companies is still in business with a long-time associate of a notorious Macau gangster, Wan Kuok Koi, also known as “Broken Tooth”.

Cheng corporate vehicles remained a partner in a Vietnam casino with a company founded by Alvin Chau, the man widely regarded as “Broken Tooth” Koi’s protege, even after Mr Chau’s arrest on 286 criminal charges in Macau last November.

The company’s chequered history includes a role in a failed Australian casino bid with discredited gambling tycoon Stanley Ho and interests in his companies, which have been blacklisted in New South Wales.

The revelations come on the eve of the Gotterson Inquiry in Queensland, which from Tuesday will probe allegations Star turned a blind eye to money laundering and criminal infiltration in the sunshine state.

The Palaszczuk government allowed Chow Tai Fook to become a major shareholder in the casino despite laws prohibiting business associations with anyone of ill-repute or “undesirable” financial sources.

“We have to have clean owners and clean operators if we’re going to have clean casinos,” Chris Sidoti, a former chairman of the NSW’s independent casino regulator, said.