AUSTRAC, Entain flag mediation talks in money laundering case
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The news: Lawyers in the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre's (AUSTRAC's) anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing lawsuit against Ladbrokes and Neds owner Entain Group plan to hold mediation talks in the case, the Federal Court of Australia has heard.
Appearing before Federal Court Judge Cameron Moore on Friday morning on behalf of AUSTRAC, barrister Kate Morgan SC said the regulator expects Entain to come to mediation talks at a date to be scheduled "with a very advanced view as to what a settlement might look like".
If the mediation fails, Austrac has proposed a tight timeline for Entain to file its defence in the case, with Moore inclined to grant the company more wiggle room to avoid delays in the case at a later date.
No formal timing orders over mediation were made this morning.
Moore indicated he plans to make interim orders extending Justice Scott Goodman's December suppression orders over details of the case. A formal hearing on the suppression application is expected in May over details including customer names and third parties linked to the case.
The context: Announcing the lawsuit in December, Austrac's chief executive officer Brendan Thomas said that "the agency considers there were systemic failures in Entain's approach" to its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations.
Austrac's allegations include that:
- Entain’s board and senior management did not have appropriate oversight of its program, which limited its ability to identify risks and vulnerability to criminal exploitation.
- Third parties, including businesses and individuals, accepted cash and other deposits on behalf of Entain to be credited into betting accounts in ways that could obscure the proceeds of crime.
- Entain did not conduct appropriate checks on 17 higher risk customers, including examples where Entain did not appropriately deal with the risk that its online betting sites were being exploited by criminals to spend the proceeds of serious crime. This includes allegations that Entain deliberately obscured the identity of some high risk customers, on its own systems, through the use of pseudonyms to “protect their privacy”.
