Former Star CEO and Legal Chief Cop A$1.1m in Fines as Court Shuts Governance Case

Key Points

• Matt Bekier received a A$700,000 fine and a six-year ban; Paula Martin was hit with a A$400,000 penalty and a seven-year disqualification, and both must cover 45% of ASIC’s legal costs.
• The March ruling established that both executives kept their board in the dark about risks tied to junket operator Suncity, and that misleading conduct connected to National Australia Bank had taken place.
• Star Sydney’s licence remains suspended under external management, with the casino accumulating more than A$25m in regulatory fines across 2024 and 2026 alone.

The Federal Court of Australia has imposed fines on two ex-employees of Star Entertainment Group and banned them from being directors and managers of any company, bringing an end to the topmost level case which is still pending in a governance scandal that cost the company its license and more than hundreds of millions in fines.

Matt Bekier held the position of CEO in Star Entertainment Group from April 2014 until March 2022. He was fined A$700K and was also debarred from taking up any managerial post for six years. Paula Martin, who was the general counsel and chief legal and risk officer, was fined A$400,000 with a ban of seven years. Both must also cover 45% of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s legal costs.

The combined A$1.1m fell well short of what ASIC had been pushing for. Back in May, the regulator argued before Justice Michael Lee that Bekier warranted a A$1.3m fine and an eight-year ban. The ASIC legal representative said he had neither remorse nor understanding of his failings, and with such failings, people needed to be protected from him being reappointed to any senior role in a corporation. On the other hand, the lawyer for their client argued that 18 months was the appropriate period and that they had never been dishonest.

What They Actually Did?

The fines trace back to a March ruling in which the Federal Court found both executives had breached their duties under the Corporations Act. At the centre of it sat Suncity, a Macau-based junket operator and Star’s biggest single source of high-roller revenue, which channelled A$2.1bn through the casino group in the 2017 financial year alone.

What was actually going on inside Salon 95, the private gaming room Suncity occupied at Star’s Sydney property, bore little resemblance to what the revenue numbers implied. During 2018-2019, employees of Suncity were found taking cash that was presented to them in boxes and coolers at the counter. Some covered themselves with blankets so that they would not be within the reach of the cameras. An inquiry later confirmed Bekier knew about this. His board did not.

The court also found he had failed to act on a KPMG report that flagged weaknesses in Star’s anti-money-laundering controls. Then there was the China UnionPay matter. Justice Lee found that Bekier knew a letter sent to National Australia Bank contained a false claim, specifically that the card transactions processed at the casino had nothing to do with gambling. After receiving that letter, he made no effort to get a full picture of what Star had told the bank. The judge found he “should have got to the bottom of this by demanding access to all material.”

Martin was not removed from any of it. The court found she had failed to properly brief Star’s board on the risks surrounding Suncity, and that she was directly involved in the conduct that misled National Australia Bank. ASIC has said more than A$900m passed through National Australia Bank terminals via those China UnionPay cards between 2013 and 2019. Suncity’s founder, Alvin Chau, is currently locked up in Macau, serving an 18-year prison sentence for illegal gambling, criminal association and money laundering.

Why the Fines Landed Below What ASIC Wanted?

ASIC filed proceedings in December 2022 against 11 current and former Star directors and officers. Before the Bekier and Martin trial reached a conclusion, former chief casino officer Gregory Hawkins and former CFO Harry Theodore had already settled, accepting fines of A$180,000 and A$60,000 respectively, along with short bans.

Legal analysts at Clayton Utz noted the court had described those earlier outcomes as “objectively generous,” and that the Bekier and Martin penalties would have been considerably heavier had those earlier settlements not already planted a reference point the court felt bound to respect. What made the decision significant, they observed, was that the conduct was found to be negligent rather than intentionally dishonest, and yet penalties of this size were still handed down.

Justice Lee was direct about it: governance failures rarely happen because nobody had the information. More often, he said, they happen because “the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet.”

The Casino Itself Is Still Paying

The personal penalties arrived in the same month the NSW Independent Casino Commission fined The Star Sydney A$10m across four disciplinary matters, with a separate A$5m directed toward a financial crime risk technology fund. The four breaches included systemic failures in anti-money-laundering processes, at least 1,898 patrons converting reward points to cash in ways that should never have been allowed, gambling sessions that ran past mandatory break limits, and nine separate instances of an excluded patron getting through the door.

NICC chief commissioner Philip Crawford acknowledged the progress made under new leadership, but made clear the commission had no intention of going easy on historical breaches.

This came after the NICC imposed a A$15m fine in October 2024, following a second Bell inquiry finding that Star was unfit to hold a casino licence. The Star Sydney licence remains suspended. External manager Nick Weeks has had his appointment extended through to 30 September 2026, and Queensland has kept the Gold Coast property under the same arrangement.

Bally’s Corporation, which acquired a 56.7% stake in the group through a A$300m investment, is now steering a business that reported a A$472m net loss for the 2025 financial year.

What Does This Mean for the Rest of the Industry?

For anyone working inside a regulated gambling business, or advising one, the Bekier and Martin case has answered something that was previously left open. A chief executive and a chief legal and risk officer have been personally fined and banned, not for orchestrating fraud, but for what they knew, what they chose to keep to themselves, and the moments when a warning landed in front of them and they let it sit there.

The penalties came in below what ASIC had sought, but that gap was a product of sentencing parity, not a verdict that their conduct was acceptable. Boards across every regulated market now have a clearer sense of where the line sits, and what it costs to remain on the wrong side of it.