Blackstone quietly injected almost half a billion dollars in cash into Crown Resorts last year as the asset management giant attempted to turn around a casino business under pressure from a lack of high rollers.
Several people with knowledge of the transaction, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said Crown received the funds soon after being hit with a $450 million penalty by AUSTRAC for breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws last July.
Those people said Crown was given the financing to keep operations running and push ahead with its remediation efforts at a time when VIP customers were spending less and costs were rising.
