It’s the latest in a series of devastating blows for the company following investigations by NSW regulators and two Royal Commissions which raised serious allegations of money laundering.

Blackstone has offered to buy the company for $8.9 billion. Packer owns about 37 per cent of the company.

AUSTRAC said Crown’s inaction allowed for the movement of money in ways that were not transparent and made the company vulnerable to criminal exploitation.

AUSTRAC’s Federal Court action against Crown followed compliance work with the casino sector which led to some detailed enforcement actions.

The allegations include that Crown failed to assess the risks it faced in relation to money laundering and terrorism financing and did not include in its programs appropriate risk-based systems and controls to manage and mitigate the risk to which it was exposed.

AUSTRAC said there was no system of management or board oversight and Crown did not have a sufficient transaction monitoring program that would identify suspicious activity.

There was also no appropriate enhanced due diligence program to carry out checks on its high-risk customers.

AUSTRAC chief executive Nicole Rose said Crown had failed to meet its obligations in relation to money laundering and terrorism financing laws, which made the Australian business vulnerable to criminal exploitation.

“AUSTRAC’s investigation identified poor governance, risk management and failures to have and maintain compliant anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing program detailing how Crown would mitigate and manage the risk of their products and services being misused for money laundering and terrorism financing,” Rose said.

“They also failed to carry out appropriate ongoing customer due diligence including on some very high risk customers.

“This led to widespread and serious non-compliance over a number of years.”

AUSTRAC is also investigating SkyCity in Adelaide and the Star Group.