Tabcorp, a well-regarded Australian operator, will be paying $35 million in fined for its failure to comply with Aussie anti-money laundering laws. The massive fine is the result of more than 100 instances of non-compliance and is taking a heavy toll on the company’s bottom line.
The fine is the fruit of weeks of negotiations between Tabcorp attorneys and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC). A final form of the settlement was approved by a federal judge last week.
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Tabcorp was not in compliance with the Anti-Money laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (AML/CTF) on a fairly regular basis. According to a report from the Associated Press, Tabcorp violated the AML/CTF on no fewer than 108 individual instances.
AUSTRAC boss Paulo Jevtovic slammed Tabcorp in a statement regarding the matter saying:
This was a serious failure in the corporate governance and the size of the penalty reflects a significant and extensive noncompliance.In my view, the noncompliance arises from a corporate culture that is indifferent to money laundering and terrorism financing requirements.
In his own statement, Tabcorp CEO David Attenborough was contrite saying:
We have made significant investment in enhancing our … compliance over the past three years and remain focused on being the industry leader in regulatory compliance across all or our operations
That “significant investment” wasn’t enough to keep the massive fine from impacting Tabcorp’s bottom line however. The company’s most recent half year profit report was down a whopping 28 percent over the previous year’s report. Tabcorp had already paid $20 million in fines on the matter when the settlement was announced.