The former Australian border force boss Roman Quaedvlieg is to be the first witness called at public hearings next week into corruption allegations involving the agency’s treatment of Crown casino high-rollers.
The hearings, to be held in Melbourne by the Australian Law Enforcement Integrity Commissioner Michael Griffin, will also hear from the current border force deputy commissioner, Mandy Newton, and the first assistant secretary of Peter Dutton’s home affairs department, Peta Dunn.
Quaedvlieg, who was sacked for misbehaviour in March last year over allegations he denies, has claimed he was lobbied by two ministers and another MP to help smooth the way through border security for Crown’s Chinese high-rollers.
Nine newspapers have also alleged that a border force officer moonlighted as security for one of Crown’s junket operators who was on Interpol’s “red notice” list of international fugitives from justice.
News that Quaedvlieg intends to give evidence comes ahead of Crown Resorts’ annual shareholder meeting, to be held in Melbourne on Thursday, at which the company is likely to face questions about the series of investigations it is facing.
Tuesday’s ACLEI hearings will be the first the body, which investigates allegations relating to federal law enforcement officials, has held in public in its 13-year history.
Griffin said the hearings would “examine the extent to which interactions between the Department of Home Affairs and Crown Casino raise issues of corruption”.
He said the issues involved “and the significant public interest in those matters, has led me to conclude that this particular investigation will be best served by hearing matters in public where appropriate”.
The Sydney barrister David McLure SC, an Army Reserve colonel, will act as counsel assisting Griffin.
Hearings are set to run until Friday and more are likely to be called as the investigation, dubbed Operation Angove, goes on.
The ACLEI is one of six agencies investigating Crown after Nine newspapers and the media company’s flagship TV current affairs program, 60 Minutes, levelled a series of allegations against the James Packer-backed casino group.
Crown has furiously denied the Nine allegations, with its entire board signing a letter attacking “unbalanced and sensationalised reporting [which] is based on unsubstantiated allegations, exaggerations, unsupported connections and outright falsehoods”.
The board also denied Crown ever sought to circumvent visa requirements.
Two members of the board, which includes the former Howard-era minister for communications Helen Coonan, face re-election on Thursday: the former Australian Football League boss Andrew Demetriou and the advertising guru Harold Mitchell.
Both have endured questions about their suitability as company directors. Demetriou was grilled in court earlier this year about his involvement with failed training group Acquire Learning, while Mitchell is currently fighting moves by the corporate regulator to have him disqualified from the boardroom over allegations that in late 2012 and early 2013, while at Tennis Australia, he helped the Seven Network get a cheap deal to broadcast the Australian Open.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, home to Crown’s biggest casino, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation is currently conducting two investigations into the casino group.
One, which has been on foot for two years, focuses on the jailing of 19 Crown staff for gambling promotion crimes by Chinese authorities in 2016.
The other, called by the Victorian gaming minister, Marlene Kairouz, in early August to look into allegations raised by Nine and others, was supposed to report back within three weeks but has also been delayed.
“The investigation remains ongoing while the VCGLR endeavours to collect any additional relevant information and evidence,” the regulator said in its annual report, tabled in state parliament last week.
More public hearings are to be held in a separate inquiry in New South Wales into the fitness of Crown to hold the licence to run a mammoth casino currently under construction at Barangaroo.
The NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority inquiry, run by the former judge Patricia Bergin, will investigate issues including whether Packer’s decision to sell almost 20% of Crown to the Hong Kong billionaire Lawrence Ho’s Melco empire breached the Barangaroo licence.
Ho’s father, Stanley, and some other members of the Ho family, are banned from involvement from Barangaroo over allegations the elder Ho has links to triad organised crime. Stanley Ho has always denied the allegations.
As the Guardian has previously reported, one of Melco’s ultimate shareholders, a company called Great Respect, has previously been linked to Stanley Ho.
In addition, Lawrence Ho was a director of another company banned from Barangaroo due to its links with his father at the time he took possession of 10% of Crown.
The Gaming and Wagering Commission of Western Australia is also investigating the allegations raised by Nine, while the federal anti-money laundering agency Austrac is working with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to look into the presence of organised crime in casinos.
