Former Executives Fined AU$1.1M Over Money Laundering Failures

Australia’s Federal Court has handed down AU$1.1 million in fines and multi-year management bans to two former executives of The Star Entertainment Group following findings that they failed to address money laundering risks at the casino operator. Former chief executive Matthias Bekier was fined AU$700,000 and disqualified from managing corporations for six years. Former chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin was fined AU$400,000 and banned for seven years. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission announced the penalties on 18 June 2026.

The penalties follow a Federal Court ruling in March 2026 that found both executives had breached their duties under Australia’s Corporations Act. The case centred on Star Entertainment’s relationship with Suncity Group, once its largest junket partner, and on the handling of China UnionPay card transactions at its casinos. The court found that Bekier failed to act on a KPMG report identifying deficiencies in Star’s anti-money laundering controls, while Martin failed to inform the board adequately about risks arising from the company’s dealings with Suncity.

The case is not the first to result in personal penalties within Star Entertainment. In 2025, former chief casino officer Gregory Hawkins and former chief financial officer Harry Theodore admitted related duty breaches and were separately penalised. Justice Michael Lee, in handing down the June penalties, noted that neither Bekier nor Martin had demonstrated sufficient insight into the seriousness of their misconduct, adding that casino operations carry unusual privileges and risks that make governance failures especially serious.

A Signal for Compliance Leaders

The Star Entertainment cases establish that anti-money laundering compliance is not a back-office function that can be delegated without board-level ownership. Regulators and courts are now examining whether executives understood the risks within their organisations and took documented action when red flags emerged. Shufti’s AML screening and transaction screening capabilities support 2,000-plus enterprise clients in building compliance programmes that meet the standards regulators are now enforcing, with real-time screening across 3,500-plus global watchlists and clear audit trails throughout.

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