The Star showed high-roller how to make $11m China transfer

A billionaire property developer has revealed how The Star Sydney staff helped him use a Chinese bank card to transfer $11 million in gambling funds to the casino in a single day, which it disguised as hotel expenses.

The inquiry into The Star’s licence also heard on Thursday that senior figures at the casino knew Chinese bank cards were not allowed to fund gambling, but accepted them anyway, and did not disclose those facts to the NSW gambling regulator.

Phillip Dong Fang Lee said he felt “anxious” after losing a large amount of money at the Pyrmont casino in 2015, when an employee told him he could pay his gambling debt with a China UnionPay card.

“Of course, I was very happy,” Mr Lee told the inquiry through a translator. “I do not have money in Australia; in China I could borrow money in RMB (renminbi).”

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Mr Lee – whose $12.5 million credit limit at the casino was increased to $23.3 million in 2015 – said that over many years he lost “so much money” at the casino. Using his UnionPay card to access money from his Chinese banks gave him the opportunity to win it back, he said.

Documents presented to the inquiry showed that on April 6, 2015, Mr Lee’s cards were charged 12 times for $900,000 each, for a total of almost $11 million, and was used to either pay for either casino chips or repay debts. The Star then issued Mr Lee with an invoice for 27 nights stay at The Star’s Astral Residences hotel. He said he did not stay at the hotel that month.

The inquiry – which was triggered by a series of reports by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age last year – heard last week that The Star disguised $900 million of gambling funds on UnionPay cards as hotel transactions, and misled the National Australia Bank about the scam.

Mr Lee also explained he could withdraw unused gambling funds as cash or as a cheque written out in his name, confirming the UnionPay process could be used as a back-channel to move money from China to Australia without monitoring by banks or law enforcement. Mr Lee said The Star banned him from gambling last year.