Australian casino operator Crown Resorts has tasked outside legal counsel with determining management’s liability in the arrests of 18 employees for violating China’s gambling laws.

In October, mainland Chinese authorities arrested 18 Crown staffers, including three Australian nationals, for allegedly promoting gambling activity at Crown casinos to Chinese VIPs. While one staffer has been released, the others were formally arrested this week and are now awaiting trial on as-yet unspecified charges.

On Friday, Fairfax Media reported that Crown had hired pricey law firm Minter Ellison to determine the company’s exposure to lawsuits or class actions from relatives of the accused and angry shareholders who saw Crown’s share price tumble following news of the arrests. A ‘senior Crown figure’ characterized the legal review “an act of corporate, legal and reputational arse-covering of the first order.”

A different source claimed Crown management had belatedly realized that it had “failed massively in its duty of care” to its employees and shareholders. The source said paper trails would prove that Crown managers “knew China had warned them not to market into China.”