Former SkyCity CFO Rob Hamilton has resigned from the NZX board. Photo / Greg Bowker
Former SkyCity CFO Rob Hamilton has resigned from the NZX board. Photo / Greg Bowker
Westpac New Zealand says it is comfortable with Rob Hamilton’s directorship at the bank despite the stock exchange withdrawing endorsement of him as chair-elect amid legal proceedings against SkyCity Adelaide.
Hamilton, formerly SkyCity Entertainment’s chief financial officer, this morning resigned from the NZX board following the NZX’s decision.
NZX saidin a statement it could no longer endorse Hamilton as a proposed chairman as long as the proceedings, lodged in December by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac), were unresolved.
“The NZX board took time to carefully consider the matter,” a spokesman said when asked why it took four months after the Austrac allegations.
“Ultimately it was Rob’s decision to resign as a director.”
Hamilton said he was “naturally disappointed” with the NZX board’s decision to withdraw endorsement given the facts of the situation.
“The Austrac claim is not against me personally. I am not involved in any way in the claim, nor do I expect to be.”
Austrac is suing SkyCity Adelaide for “serious noncompliance” with anti-money laundering laws and failing to monitor telltale signs of money laundering.
A Westpac spokesman told the Herald the bank was not currently reviewing Hamilton’s position as a board director.
“No new information has become available that alters Westpac NZ’s assessment of Rob Hamilton as a fit and proper director.
“However, as with any of our directors, this would be reviewed if material new information came to light.”
Hamilton, who was SkyCity’s CFO from December 2014 until February 2021, said he was never responsible for the Adelaide casino operations during his tenure.
He said prior to being appointed as a director of NZX in October last year he satisfied NZX’s “fit and proper” assessment.
“After the Austrac claim was filed in December 2022, NZX reviewed its ‘Fit and Proper’ evaluation and confirmed its original assessment,” he added.
“This change with NZX doesn’t impact any of my other board positions or consultancy work.” Hamilton is also a director of Tourism Holdings and Oceania Healthcare.
James Miller will continue as NZX chair until a new chair is appointed, the stock exchange said. Oceania chair Liz Coutts said, “the board still supports Rob Hamilton remaining as a Director of Oceania.”
Among its allegations, Austrac has stated SkyCity Adelaide allowed some customers to spend “dirty money” that seemed to have been wet and previously buried.
The agency alleged some customers posing a high money laundering or terrorism financing risk engaged in big-time cash transactions, allegedly using cash in plastic bags, garbage bags, and cash bundled together with rubber bands or irregular straps.
The NZX board said it had taken account of an Australian financial intelligence agency's proceedings against SkyCity Adelaide. Photo / Supplied.
It is Austrac’s third live civil court case against a casino group this year, after cases against Australia’s Crown Resorts and Star Entertainment.
Court documents showed a SkyCity Adelaide cashier “struggled to count the notes which appeared to be wet or dirty” and a customer “engaged in large and unusual transactions and patterns of transactions which had no apparent economic or visible lawful purpose”.
Austrac claimed some transactions involving large amounts of cash and cash that appeared to be wet and dirty, and the casino exchanged those dirty notes for cash chips.
The regulator alleges the Adelaide casino made little effort to know its customers who were pumping millions of dollars through its systems.
