The ACCC’s investigatory techniques have come under fire during a hearing over an alleged criminal cartel agreement between ANZ and two investment banks, with a barrister for one of the banks suggesting investigators from the regulator deliberately did not take notes during hundreds of days of witness interviews to avoid disclosure.
Despite receiving immunity in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two other investment banks, JPMorgan has disputed the existence of any cartel agreement since the early days of the ACCC’s investigations, a court has heard.
For the lawyers conducting the committal hearings in the criminal cartel case over ANZ’s $2.5 billion equity raising, the Sydney Downing Centre courtroom was already too close for comfort.
An ACCC officer who was heading up a team investigating alleged cartel conduct by ANZ Banking Group and three investment banks has admitted that the regulator may have made an ‘oversight’ in a letter of comfort offered to JPMorgan ahead of the bank’s immunity application in the case.
During another day of cross-examination in a criminal cartel case against ANZ and two investment banks, a key ACCC officer was accused of lying about his interrogation of a key cartel witness, with the officer insisting there was nothing “sinister” in his examination.
An ACCC investigator has come under fire from ANZ as the bank seeks to shoot holes in the criminal cartel action against it, with counsel for the bank accusing the regulator of “infecting” witness statements and erasing testimony that weakened its case.
A key officer from the ACCC involved in interviewing JPMorgan bankers during a cartel investigation that led to criminal charges against ANZ and two investment banks has denied allegations that he acted improperly during the investigation.
A magistrate has dismissed a bid to expand the cross examination of a JPMorgan witness in the closely watched criminal cartel case over a $2.5 billion ANZ share placement, calling it a “back door” attempt to bypass a prior court ruling.
The banks and executives facing criminal charges over alleged cartel conduct related to ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement in 2015 will fight to widen their cross-examination of key ACCC witnesses after new information was brought to light in late submissions by the regulator.
A key witness from JPMorgan previously contested claims by the ACCC that a key component of an alleged cartel arrangement between four major banks around a $2.5 billion institutional share placement by ANZ was actually an ‘agreement,’ as opposed to a series of independent decisions, a court has heard.