New chairman for troubled Crown Resorts

Ziggy Switkowski has stepped in as chairman of the troubled Crown Resorts in Australia.

He replaces Helen Coonan as the Royal Commission investigating allegations of money laundering in the casino operator, closes on completion.

Switkowski is a non-executive director of NBN Co, a broadband provider and has a background in telecommunications. He will take over once clearances have been obtained from regulators. Meantime Jane Halton is taking over the chair temporarily.

The Crown licenses in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney are at risk in the Royal Commission and the group last Monday reported big losses in its operations after the pandemic. Crown’s potential sale of shares to private equity group Oaktree Capital, has also been dropped.

The company reported a net loss of A$261.6m (US$191.3m), compared with an A$79.5m profit