![]() “How can the NSW regulator have confidence in your character?” counsel assisting, Adam Bell SC, asked. Over an excruciating half hour Packer agreed that his conduct was “shameful” and “disgraceful” and brought discredit on Crown. Packer acknowledged to the inquiry he had made a threat but said it was “a surprise to him” that X had been put in fear of his life. The emails have been kept confidential but are believed to have involved sending an agent connected to Mossad to visit X. Packer was taken to a string of emails sent to X that recorded Packer’s displeasure. X, an executive of Z Co, had been asked to stump up $1.5bn but had offered only $400m, subject to due diligence. The inquiry heard CPH was talking to private equity firms, including one referred to in evidence as Z Co. ![]() One option was to take Crown private again and restructure its assets through a possible buyout of the 47% of shares Packer did not own. In March 2015 investment banker Rob Rankin, a man with a long experience of working in Asia, had joined CPH. In Kitney’s book Packer describes Milchan as “the most charming and deadly person” he knows. ![]() Packer moved to Israel, and became friends with Israeli billionaire Arnon Milchan, whose colourful career has spanned professional soccer, a stint as an arms dealer and intelligence agent, and head of Hollywood studio Regency Films. The opening hours of Packer’s testimony included extraordinary revelations about his mental health. Packer’s personal problems intersected with the business of Crown. He was also on powerful psychiatric drugs and, after fleeing to his Argentinean polo estate, Ellerstina, suffered from weight gain that he told Kitney saw him blow out to 130kg. He was drinking a bottle of vodka “and more” a day. Much of the detail of those times is revealed in Damon Kitney’s book The Price of Fortune, which was written with Packer’s cooperation.Īccording to Kitney, Packer hit rock-bottom in October 2016, a time when he and Crown were mired in multiple controversies. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPīy the end of 2015, Consolidated Press International Holdings, the Bahamas-registered family company Packer inherited from his father, Kerry, was also swimming in debt after he struck a $1.525bn deal with his sister, Gretel, to split up the clan’s fortune. The Crown casino and hotel development at Barangaroo in Sydney. The Barangaroo project was becoming eye-wateringly expensive. The cost of Crown’s expansions into Macau and Las Vegas were weighing on its balance sheet. Packer, it seemed, was at the height of his powers.īut within two years of that triumph, Crown was groaning under a mountain of debt. ![]() ![]() The project was so “unique” and “visionary” that O’Farrell bypassed any tender to award the licence under the unsolicited bids process available where a project is deemed unique. The Packer spin had been total and the NSW government, then led by premier Barry O’Farrell, were won over by his vision. Photograph: Gaye Gerard/Getty ImagesĪfter a campaign that included a tear-filled TV interview on Seven’s Sunday Night program, Packer convinced the NSW government to give him the second casino licence and a prime site smack bang on the Sydney waterfront of the emerging precinct of Barangaroo, to build a 271-metre “iconic“ building housing a high-roller casino, a six-star hotel and 82 luxury units attracting prices over $40m. The inquiry heard that Packer had even met the boss of one, Suncity, in the gambling mecca Macau. Under heavy questioning, Packer eventually conceded that he was “on notice” of the alleged crime connections of no fewer than six junkets – companies that bring high rollers from overseas to gamble at Crown casinos and often partner in operating high-roller rooms. Executives have admitted to $5.6m in cash found in a cupboard in the high-roller room of Crown Melbourne and arrangements that allowed VIP gamblers to deposit cash without having to put it through “the cage” – the official chip-issuing facility at Crown’s Melbourne and Perth casinos. The inquiry has heard evidence that appears to suggest that Crown turned a blind eye to money laundering. Looking subdued and at times uncomfortable, he has been painfully stepped through how his unfolding mental illness, a Chinese crackdown on foreign gambling, and a culture of trying to please the boss wreaked havoc on his gambling empire. ![]()
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