A former Commonwealth Bank manager convicted of pocketing almost $US2 million in kickbacks for facilitating business deals with his employer has been jailed for his role in the scam.
NSW District Court Judge Phillip Mahony said it was unlikely Jon Waldron would “be able to obtain employment in any position of trust in the future” as he sentenced him in Sydney on Friday to a maximum of six years and eight months in prison with a non-parole period of four years.
Jon Waldron, second from left, outside the Downing Centre District Court last month.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“The offender has continued to protest his innocence and has appealed his convictions,” Mahony said.
“Thus he has shown no remorse for his offending conduct and has made no progress in his rehabilitation.”
The judge said he accepted the conclusions in a sentencing assessment report that Waldron’s “focus has been on how his offending has impacted upon himself, both financially and emotionally, and that he is unable to identify how his actions may have impacted the community”.
“Notwithstanding that, I accept that he is at a low risk of reoffending.”
The bribes
A former general manager of IT infrastructure engineering at the bank, Waldron was found guilty in May by the court of seven counts of corruptly receiving a total of $US1.9 million as a reward for smoothing the path for a US-based tech company to ink two deals with the bank.
The New Zealand-born Waldron was also found guilty of three counts of aiding and abetting a co-accused to receive bribes.
Waldron was sacked after internal investigators discovered mystery payments into his CBA account.
Waldron’s trial heard that ServiceMesh Inc, a California-based cloud computing start-up, supplied software services to the bank from 2009.
The Crown alleged the principal shareholder of ServiceMesh, Eric Pulier, paid more than $US2 million to Waldron and an IT executive manager at CBA in 2014 as a reward for helping ServiceMesh strike two software deals with the bank, in 2013 and 2014. Pulier has denied wrongdoing.
Waldron received the lion’s share of the money, the court has heard, and the payments were received without the Commonwealth Bank’s knowledge. His co-accused has already served a prison sentence.
“$$landed”, Waldron wrote in a text message to a ServiceMesh sales consultant on April 13, 2014, after meeting Pulier in Santa Monica, California, on April 11.
The court heard this message was sent before the first payment of $US99,971.02 ($104,648.82 at the time) was transferred to Waldron’s CBA account on May 16, 2014.
Waldron had emailed his then-wife on December 21, 2013: “By the way, confirmed: $1.5 million”.
THE BRIBES
The NSW District Court found Waldron corruptly received the following payments in 2014 in his accounts, totalling $US1,899,931.68:
- May: $US99,971.02
- July: $US199,980.26
- August: $US299,980.40
- November: $US300,000
- November: $US300,000
- December: $US350,000
- December: $US350,000
A co-accused received a total of $US651,861.16, which included $21,881.60 from a payment to Waldron.
‘Avoidance of risk assessment’
Waldron’s non-parole period was backdated to July 14 this year. He is first eligible for parole on July 13, 2028.
The judge said he rejected “as sophistry the offender’s submission that his motivation in facilitating these transactions was to advance the goals of the CBA”.
“Rather, at the relevant time the offender’s whole focus was on implementing [the deal] … and ensuring the avoidance of appropriate governance oversight and risk assessment, in that process.”
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