Days after reaching an AU$67 million (US$45 million) agreement with Australian anti-money laundering watchdog AUSTRAC for historical AML failures at its Adelaide casino, SkyCity Entertainment Group has reached a similar agreement with New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) to resolve civil penalty proceedings commenced in February 2024.
Under the terms of the agreement, SkyCity has admitted that it breached its obligations under the New Zealand Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 to undertake and review a fully-compliant risk assessment, establish, implement, and maintain a fully-compliant AML/CFT compliance programme, adequately conduct account monitoring, conduct compliant enhanced customer due diligence and terminate business relationships when required.
The breaches span from 2018 to 2023, with SkyCity and the DIA to jointly recommend that the High Court of New Zealand impose a civil pecuniary penalty of NZ$4.16 million (US$2.54 million).
SkyCity Executive Chair Julian Cook said, “SkyCity has been subject to regulatory enforcement action in both Australia and New Zealand and those regulators are rightly holding SkyCity to account.
“Over the past few years, considerable progress has been made towards upgrading our anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT) systems. This does not lessen the seriousness with which we take these breaches and we are disappointed that SkyCity is in this position. As a casino operator, we play a key role in combatting money laundering and terrorism financing and we take that responsibility seriously.
“On behalf of the SkyCity Board and management team, I accept and apologize for these long-standing failings.
“We have fallen short of the standards we should hold ourselves to, alongside failing to meet the expectations of our regulators, customers, shareholders and the communities we are part of. We are committed to, and have begun, delivering the level of change that is required to meet these expectations.”
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