Prosecutors have withdrawn two-thirds of the charges in a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement and have dropped their case against former Citigroup CEO Stephen Roberts, according to a lawyer in the case.
Investment banks accused in the criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement will not lose their right to a fair trial with the release of a judgment finding the prosecutors’ indictment deficient, a judge has ruled.
A judge has ordered the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to file a replacement indictment to address defects in the document at the centre of its criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement in August 2015.
Several banks and executives facing criminal cartel charges over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement have won access to interview notes taken by whistleblower JP Morgan prior to it being granted immunity, which the banks say will prove inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case.
The judge who vowed last year to move a criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement to trial “before we all retire” will soon weigh the ACCC’s claim for privilege over statements from JPMorgan witnesses it has been accused of pressuring during its investigation, two months after a different judge heard a still unresolved privilege fight in the long-running case.
The prosecution in a criminal cartel case against several banks and high-ranking executives over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement has fought back against accusations that its indictment is “fundamentally flawed” and should be quashed.
Global investment banks and executives accused of engaging in criminal cartel conduct in relation to a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement in 2015 will seek to quash the “incomprehensible” indictment filed against them, claiming it is full of “fallacies”.
Three banks have been committed to stand trial after pleading not guilty to criminal charges stemming from an alleged cartel agreement reached in a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, with the closely watched case now moving to the Federal Court two-and-a-half years after it was filed.
An investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has come under fire by the banks and directors targeted in a criminal case over alleged cartel conduct that claim the regulator “contaminated” key evidence and improperly used material supplied by ASIC.