Claims of burner phones, secret payments in V/Line probe
A corruption investigation into Victoria’s public transport network has ended for the day in dramatic scenes, with the unveiling of a note V/Line chief executive James Pinder wrote to a witness after investigators had raided his home.
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A corruption investigation into Victoria’s public transport network has ended for the day in dramatic scenes, with the unveiling of a note V/Line chief executive James Pinder wrote to a witness after investigators had raided his home.
Mr Pinder was on Monday grilled by Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission over allegations of serious misconduct and improper behaviour over the awarding of contracts.
It as also revealed that he made contact with an associate just days after he became aware of the probe, prompting lawyers to suggest he had attempted to square away his story with others.
The probe centres around V/Line’s decision to award a major contract to cleaning company Transclean in 2018 and a $320,000 payment made seven months later which helped Mr Pinder buy his $2.5 million Williamstown home.
In December that year, $100,000 was transferred from Maria Tsakopolous, an associate of Transclean, and into a deposit Mr Pinder was making to buy a home, with further funds made available over coming weeks.
Mr Pinder told the commission the money was a loan offered from a friend because a sudden rule change meant Australian banks would not acknowledge his UK assets.
But IBAC investigators have further linked the money back to Transclean and allegedly to related businesses owned by George Haritos, the company’s managing director.
Mr Pinder said he had always intended to repay the debt but admitted some documents surrounding the loan had been falsified at the time.
“I knew it was wrong but I was desperate,” he said.
Mr Pinder was also grilled over a note he gave to Ms Tsakopoulos within days of having his home searched by IBAC investigators.
In the note he detailed that they met at Jims Creek Tavern in 2013, had agreed for him to repay the loan and even mentions his favourite football team.
“I put it to you, quite frankly, Mr Pinder, that is just a fiction,” Mr Lawrie told the commission.
“This is a document that you prepared and provided to Maria to square away the story between the two of you about where that $320,000 came from.”
Burner phones and suspected cash payments have also been uncovered by IBAC, who are probing whether Mr Pinder, along with TMr Haritos and Metro Trains’ head of fleet operational support Peter Bollas, formed a “close working group” that used their positions to benefit financially.
Counsel assisting the commission, Paul Lawrie of the Victorian Bar, told the hearing investigators had discovered conflicts of interest and improper behaviour over major contracts.
“For a period of nearly four years, James Pinder and George Haritos have used a pair of burner mobile phones, subscribed in the name of Transclean associates to communicate secretly with each other and with Peter Bollas,” he said.
“These secretive phones came into use soon after James Pinder’s appointment as the chief executive officer of V/Line.”
Mr Lawrie said a V/Line board meeting in May 2018 had awarded Transclean a $17.2 million contract and then delegated authority to Mr Pinder to extend that contract for another four years if needed, worth $23 million.
This decision was made despite Mr Pinder typically only having the authority to personally oversee decisions worth up to $5 million.
In December that same year, he alleged $100,000 had been transferred from an associate of the cleaning company and into the deposit for Mr Pinder’s home in Williamstown.
“This was the first of several structured payments between late 2018 and early 2019 totalling at least $320,000,” he said.
“These payments to James Pinder were in addition to suspected regular cash payments to both him and Peter Bollas to advance Transclean’s interests in the public transport sector.”
Mr Lawrie said it was suspected these payments were also linked to opportunistic deals in which the pair allegedly used their positions to financially benefit Transclean and themselves.
“The purpose of these examinations is to determine whether the procurement processes in the public transport sector have been corrupted or compromised by close undisclosed relationships with contractors, through the receipt of financial benefits,” he said.
The hearing also heard Mr Pinder had made a series of cash payments into bank accounts between late December 2019 and the middle of 2020.
Mr Pinder and Mr Bollas have both been suspended from their roles while the IBAC investigation is underway.
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