Child protection advocate calls for sacking of Westpac chairman and CEO
Shocking allegations Westpac failed to report millions of suspicious transactions, including payments to child exploitation criminals, should trigger the sacking of the chairman and CEO, a child protection advocate said.
NSW
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Shocking allegations Westpac failed to report millions of suspicious transactions, including payments to child exploitation criminals, should trigger the sacking of the chairman and boss, a child protection advocate said.
“They are putting profit over and above the lives and safety of children,” Fighters Against Child Abuse founder Adam Washbourne said.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier Thursday led the mounting pressure on Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer and chairman Lindsay Maxsted to be held accountable for the 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering and terrorism rules alleged in AUSTRAC’s bombshell case filed in the Federal Court.
“It’s not for the government to say who should be in those jobs or not, but they should be taking this very seriously, reflecting on it very deeply, and taking appropriate decisions for the protection of people’s interests in Australia, their safety,” Mr Morrison said.
“These are some very disturbing, very disturbing transactions involving despicable behaviour.”
Australian Federal Police yesterday confirmed it was working with AUSTRAC investigating people here and in Asia over allegations that they were involved in the exploitation of children.
The AFP said it was “aware of the individuals identified suspected of suspicious transactions which may relate to child sex offences”.
Included in $11 billion worth of transactions the bank allegedly failed to properly report are claims that for three years Westpac ignored the watchdog’s warnings that suspected paedophiles were using its services to send money to child exploitation providers in Asia.
A person referred to as “customer one” was using Westpac services for three years and, as recently as July, making transactions worth $136,000 “consistent with child exploitation typologies”, AUSTRAC’s statement of claim says.
Mr Washbourne said Mr Hartzer and Mr Maxsted must be held accountable. “One of the big four banks was being told ‘this is happening’ … It is absolutely abhorrent,” he said.
The recipient of funds from customer one was arrested in the Philippines in 2015 for child trafficking and exploitation involving live-streaming child sex shows and offering children for sex.
“These are real children, they have to grow up with the memory of what these people did to them for money,” Mr Washbourne said.
Westpac declined to comment yesterday. Mr Hartzer on Wednesday said he was “disgusted and appalled” by some of the transactions, adding he was determined to stay on at the bank and “fix it”.