Bingo Industries faces $50m cartel fine, ex-CEO Daniel Tartak charged with two criminal offences
Waste company Bingo Industries faces a $50m fine and its richlister ex-CEO Daniel Tartak has been charged with two criminal offences for price fixing.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Multi-billion-dollar waste company Bingo arranged an illegal price-fixing deal with its chief competitor Aussie Skips that saw Bingo put up its Sydney rates by 25 per cent and Aussie Skips raise fees by 20 per cent.
After pleading guilty to cartel contraventions, Bingo now faces a fine of as much as $50 million and its rich-lister ex-boss Daniel Tartak has been hit with two criminal offences, details of which can also be disclosed for the first time.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), which has started proceedings against Mr Tartak in the Federal Court, told The Daily Telegraph that it was alleged the former Bingo CEO “did aid, abet, counsel or procure” Bingo to both “make an arrangement containing a cartel provision” and “give effect to a cartel provision in an arrangement”, both of which are contrary to the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA).
A person convicted of a criminal cartel offence can be sentenced to up to 10 years’ imprisonment, or fined up to $444,000, or both.
Mr Tartak did not respond to requests for comment.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Tartak hasn’t been Bingo CEO since September, 2021.
The price-fixing offences the company has admitted to occurred more than two years earlier.
An indictment the CDPP has filed against Bingo in the Federal Court says: “Bingo Industries Ltd and Aussie Skips Bin Services Pty Ltd made an arrangement about the price of skip bin services in respect of mixed building and demolition waste in the Sydney Metropolitan region that Bingo Industries Ltd would maintain a price increase of at least 25 per cent – save that the price increase may be as low as 22 per cent for top tier customers – and Aussie Skips Bin Services Pty Ltd would increase its prices by at least 20 per cent”.
An arrangement was also made about “processing services”, that Bingo would increase prices by at least $60 a tonne and $35 per cubic metre while Aussie Skips would raise its rates by at least $50 a tonne and $27.50 per cubic metre.
The indictment says Bingo “gave effect” to the two arrangements from May 24 to at least August 31, 2019, in breach of the CCA.
In 2021, Bingo was sold to a division of Macquarie Bank for $2.3 billion, in a deal that valued then CEO Mr Tartak’s stake at more than $450m.
Prior to the sale, Bingo was publicly listed on the ASX. A footnote in a 427-page document sent to shareholders ahead of a vote on the MacBank buy disclosed that the potential maximum penalty was $48.67 million – 10 per cent of the company’s turnover in the 2019-20 financial year.
The action against Bingo and Mr Tartak follows an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said: “When companies arrange to fix prices, they usually do so to increase their profits, and it is consumers that pay the increased cost.
“Trying to detect cartels early and working with whistleblowers is an essential component of our work.”
The ACCC runs an immunity program that enables past or present cartel members to confess their actions and co-operate with investigations in exchange for immunity from proceedings.
Aussie Skips does not face any legal action by the ACCC or CDPP.
A Bingo spokesman said: “Since the matter occurred there have been significant changes in Bingo’s ownership, board and executive team, including improvements to Bingo’s governance processes.”
Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association CEO Gayle Sloan said consumers could have confidence in the skip bin industry.
“We have much more than two players,” Ms Sloan said. “People are getting the opportunity to shop around.”
She declined to comment on the specifics of the cartel.
Aussie Skips’ owner Aussie Industries was contacted for comment.
Huge queues as monster blackout pushes Broken Hill to brink
Schools have been closed, mine workers stood down and the local hospital shifted to emergency mode as power starts to come back online in the outback city.
Elite college students in alleged ‘racial’ tiff at iconic Sydney venue
An investigation is underway at one of the University of Sydney’s prestigious residential colleges into an alleged after-party ‘incident’ with racial overtones at the Lansdowne Hotel that later saw police called to the venue.