Seven West director to appear at casino inquiry

John Alexander will today become the third witness at the Crown casino inquiry with links to Kerry Stokes, who has close personal and business ties to royal commissioner Neville Owen.

At the close of yesterday’s hearing, Mr Owen once again acknowledged his association with Mr Stokes, though he has never mentioned Mr Stokes by name.

Instead, Mr Owen noted the scheduled appearance today of Mr Alexander, who has been on the board of directors of the Stokes-chaired Seven West Media since 2013.

“On previous occasions I have made statements concerning, particularly the efforts of Ms Maryna Fewster, who has responsibilities to that board, about my association with the chairman of that board, and those statements are repeated,” he said.

In his previous statements, Mr Owen initially acknowledged a “close personal association” with Mr Stokes.

In response to subsequent media questioning, Mr Owen admitted he is “a director of a company associated with the family interests of the chairman”.

It has since emerged that Mr Owen is a director of three companies in Mr Stokes’ network.

The personal and commercial links between the two men have become topical because of the multiple witnesses at the inquiry with links to Mr Stokes.

The first was Ms Fewster – she is the WA chief executive of Seven West Media and a director of Burswood Ltd, aka Crown Perth.

The second was Tim Roberts – he is a former director of Burswood and a current trustee of the Channel 7 Telethon Trust.

Another likely witness is former Crown Resorts and Burswood chair James Packer, who has a mix of personal and business links with Mr Stokes.

Mr Alexander will be appearing at the Crown inquiry in his capacity as a one-time executive director at Crown Resorts and a former chair of Burswood.

NSW’s Bergin inquiry made a scathing assessment of Mr Alexander, who was chairman and chief executive of Crown Resorts for three years to January 2020.

“Mr Alexander’s stewardship led Crown to disastrous consequences,” Bergin concluded.

“This included processes that exposed its directors to conflicts of interest and remote management by Mr Packer and a failure to protect Crown’s casino licensees from the infiltration of criminal elements through, at the very least, its lack of robust junket approval processes and a lack of proper oversight and monitoring of risks to money laundering in its subsidiaries’ bank accounts.”

The inquiry is assessing whether Crown Resorts should be able to retain its casino licence in WA.

Mr Owen has insisted his links to Mr Stokes are of no consequence.

“None of this raises in my mind a conflict of interest, but in the interests of transparency I make these statements,” he initially told the royal commission last month.

His later admission that he was a director of a Stokes company did not shift his thinking.

“I am satisfied that neither that, nor any other aspect of my personal association with the chairman, conflicts with my obligations to or in this royal commission.”

The Stokes’ companies on which Mr Owen serves as a director include Clabon Pty Ltd.

It is the parent of Australian Capital Equity, which is the central company in Mr Stokes’ extensive business empire.

That empire includes controlling stakes in Seven Group Holdings and Seven West Media.

Clabon has four very powerful directors – as well as Mr Owen, they are prominent Sydney-based director David Gonski, former WA premier Richard Court and former federal government minister Warwick Smith.

Mr Owen’s failure, initially at least, to fully disclose his commercial links to Mr Stokes contrasted with his fulsome disclosures in relation to two other witnesses.

For instance, he disclosed tenuous links to former Crown employee Joshua Preston.

“His brother and his brother's family are in a close friendship/relationship with some of my children but I have no recollection of meeting Mr Preston, although I may have done,” Mr Owen said last month.

Similarly, he disclosed distant family links to another witness, Crown employee James Sullivan.

“He was in the same class as one of my children at high school and through parts of university and I was acquainted with Mr Sullivan but don't think that I have seen him……within the last 16 or 17 years.”

Premier Mark McGowan has repeatedly backed Mr Owen, who came to the Perth Casino Royal Commission with an impeccable reputation.

The Premier has described Mr Owen as an eminent jurist and insisted there are no conflicts of interest.