Australia’s Federal Court has granted former Star Entertainment Group CEO Matt Bekier leave to manage a family superannuation trustee company, despite having only months ago been disqualified from managing any corporations for six years.
In a decision handed down on Friday, Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman ruled that there was limited risk in Bekier managing the fund because of the limited nature of its activities and conditions restricting its operations.
The exemption specifically applies to Leliwa Holdings Pty Limited – a company held equally by Bekier and his wife Melinda, who also serve as its two directors. The company acts solely as the corporate trustee of a self-managed superannuation fund associated with Bekier and, as was outlined during court proceedings, has no debt, no employees and limited dealings with third parties.
Bekier was in June banned from corporate leadership by the same court after being found in his time at Star to have breached his statutory duty by failing to exercise due care and diligence in his dealings with Asian junket operator Suncity Group and regarding transactions with the National Australia Bank.
Friday’s ruling does not supersede his disqualification, not does it interfere with an appeal he has since launched against the disqualification.
In her ruling, Justice Cheeseman said, “The seriousness of the conduct giving rise to the disqualification order and the findings concerning Mr Bekier’s insight weigh materially against the grant of leave. In the particular circumstances of this application, however, the confined nature of Leliwa’s activities and the conditions imposed substantially limit the risks arising from Mr Bekier’s management of it.”
She added that the proposed management role for which leave was sought is “materially different from the senior executive role in which the contraventions occurred. It is confined to a company whose only function is to act as trustee of the family self-managed superannuation fund.”
Bekier was disqualified for six years and fined AU$700,000 (US$494,000) in June, while former Star Chief Legal & Risk Officer Paula Martin was fined AU$400,000 (US$282,000) and banned for seven years for similar breaches.
This followed Australia’s securities regulator ASIC bringing civil penalty proceedings against 11 Star directors and officers in 2022 for alleged breaches of their corporate duties.
The proceedings related to allegations by ASIC that Star’s board and executives failed to give sufficient focus to the risk of money laundering and criminal associations that are “inherent in the operation of a large casino with an international customer base.”
It was also alleged that management had breached their duties by not adequately addressing the money laundering risks that arose from dealing with Macau-based junket Suncity and its CEO Alvin Chau, and by not appropriately escalating money laundering issues to the Board.
Suncity, which shut down in December 2021 following the arrest of Chau, was known to be Star’s largest junket at the time of the breaches, with Star’s turnover from Suncity rising from around AU$2.1 billion in 2017 to AU$4 billion in 2018 and AU$5.9 billion in 2019.
While the court ultimately ruled against Bekier and Martin, it also determined in March that ASIC had failed to prove breaches against seven of Star’s former directors and executives, including former Chairman John O’Neill.
As for Bekier, the Federal Court said at the time, “There remains little indication that Mr Bekier has grappled with why the conduct found against him represented a serious departure from the standards expected of a Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of a corporation conducting a casino business.”
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