Crown Resorts chief executive Kenneth Barton has denied misleading shareholders over an information-sharing agreement with company magnate James Packer.
An inquiry into a Crown subsidiary's suitability to hold a casino licence in Sydney was on Wednesday told that a shareholder at Crown's 2019 AGM asked whether the company gave Mr Packer more information than other investors.
As chief financial officer, Mr Barton was then sharing daily reports with Mr Packer, under a protocol that allowed the company to provide confidential information to its former director.
However, Mr Barton answered the shareholder's question only by talking about an information-sharing arrangement with Consolidated Press Holdings, the board from which Mr Packer had resigned.
"I suggest to you that you gave a deliberately-misleading response to the shareholders," senior counsel assisting the inquiry Adam Bell SC said.
Mr Barton responded that he was "trying to be helpful" by telling the shareholder information that was already publicly known. But he agreed the fact he was sharing information with Mr Packer did not have to be kept confidential.
Mr Packer is due to appear before the inquiry next week.
Earlier, Crown's general counsel and company secretary Mary Manos said she did not look into the bank accounts of two private Crown companies for which she was secretary, in the wake of media reports they had received funds from suspected or convicted money launderers and drug traffickers.
Manos insisted she met her compliance obligations, but that she did not have intimate knowledge of the company's transactions.
Manos said that "(getting) down on hands and knees" was "not something you would expect of the company secretary".
"Surely someone should have said, 'for goodness' sake, let's get hold of these accounts, the corporation's reputation is being sullied in the press on a daily basis, let's look if the accounts have anything suspicious in them'," inquiry commissioner Patricia Bergin said.
"I accept that," Ms Manos replied.
Ms Bergin continued that "(getting) down on your hands and knees and (looking) at dusty bank accounts" was "the very thing that should have happened, surely?".
Ms Manos acknowledged that "more questions could have been asked".
The inquiry, which has been running since January, was prompted by the sale of Crown shares to Melco Resorts and media reports of money laundering and organised crime.
