The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has launched civil penalty proceedings against 11 current and former directors and officers of The Star Entertainment Group Limited for alleged breaches of their duties under the Corporations Act.

Citing a failure to sufficiently address risks around money laundering and criminal association in their dealings with Asian junkets, ASIC alleges the directors instead approved the expansion of Star’s relationship with them. By not taking steps to make further enquiries of management about such risks they breached their director duty obligations, the watchdog said on Tuesday.

The directors named in the proceedings are former chairman John O Neill, former Managing Director and CEO Matt Bekier, Kathleen Lahey, Richard Sheppard, Gerard Bradley, Sally Pitkin, Benjamin Heap and Zlatko Todorcevski. Also named are former Company Secretary and Group General Counsel Paula Martin and former Chief Casino Officer Greg Hawkins.