Authorities in Taiwan are investigating James Packer’s Melco Crown Entertainment joint venture amidst allegations the firm engaged in more than $170 million in illegal transfers.
Under Taiwanese law, only banks are allowed to handle domestic and international money transfers, with travellers limited to taking $10,000 per person abroad.
Packer’s Crown gaming group owns a 33.4% stake in the joint venture.
Boral set to slash 700 jobs
Construction group Boral has announced it is cutting 700 jobs, with the firm set to axe as many as one in three of its back-office jobs.
The job cuts come on top of an additional 300 production job losses already announced by the company, including 90 jobs through the end of clinker production at Waurn Ponds, near Geelong in Victoria.
The firm cites the need to “right-size” its business against the background of weak sales in the local construction sector as the reason for the cuts.
Gillard to order resource projects to spend on local manufacturers
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is expected to introduce a plan that will direct major resource and infrastructure projects to increase spending with local manufacturers.
While there will not be any hard quotas associated with the plan, major projects will be obligated to prove their spending supports the Australian manufacturing sector.
The policy is aimed to help save jobs in the local manufacturing sector and comes against the backdrop of major job cuts at Boral.
Overnight
The S&P500 was 0.1% higher at 1473.83. The Australian dollar is up to US105.7 cents.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
