Bank cartel charge court hearings delayed for three months

The Australian 3:44pm June 27, 2018

Michael Roddan

Court hearings for the criminal cartel charges laid against ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank have been delayed for three months, after a surprise mention in the Downing Court.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions today continued “matters relating to” Bank of America Merrill Lynch head of capital markets Michael Richardson, ANZ’s chief risk officer for the Australian division Rick Moscati and former Deutsche Bank chief executive Michael Ormaechea were mentioned in the Downing Centre Local Court yesterday.

The individuals have been charged with cartel conduct, along with Citigroup’s head of capital markets, John McLean, Citigroup’s global head of foreign exchange trading, Itay Tuchman, and former Citigroup Australia chief executive Stephen Roberts.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has alleged the individuals and the banks, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and ANZ acted as a cartel when they were faced with a shortfall in demand for ANZ’s $2.5 billion share placement to big fund managers in August 2015.

The cartel allegations relate to how the banks then attempted to offload the unsold shares, worth about $800 million, to investors.

“The court appearance for each defendant was procedural only and no documents were tendered by the CDPP,” the CDPP said.

Lawyers for the trio applied to be excused from attending the first court appearance, which had been scheduled for next week. The same was granted for the corporations Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and ANZ.

“Applications were granted on the basis that each of the defendants would be legally represented on each future occasion that the matters are listed for procedural directions in the local court,” the CDPP said.

It said the scheduled hearing for July 3 was vacated and the matters were now scheduled for October 9.