Oswals attempt to reach settlements with ANZ and ATO
INDIAN couple Pankaj and Radhika Oswal are hoping to reach legal settlements with both the ANZ Bank and the taxation commissioner.
INDIAN couple Pankaj and Radhika Oswal are hoping to reach legal settlements with both the ANZ Bank and the taxation commissioner.
The Oswals will now undertake mediation with the bank over the sale of their Australian fertiliser business and separately with the Commonwealth Commissioner of Taxation over alleged unpaid taxes.
A settlement in the bank case may enable settlement over the tax matter, the Oswals’ barrister Rashelle Seiden SC told the Federal Court on Monday.
Federal Court Justice Tony Pagone has reserved judgment over one of the Oswals’ tax matters.
That matter has been set down for mediation on September 1.
The bank case in the Victorian Supreme Court has again been delayed as settlement talks continue.
Last week it was revealed the Oswals were close to settling but AAP reported the details of the settlement would likely be kept confidential.
The Oswals wanted at least $1.5 billion and as much as $2.5 billion in damages from the ANZ and receivers PPB Advisory, as part of a complex case involving numerous claims and counterclaims.
They argued the $US560 million sale of their 65 per cent Burrup Holdings stake in 2012 represented less than half its true value and the bank was simply interested in getting the debt the Oswals owed covered.
The Oswals this week finalised a confidential settlement with one of the buyers, US oil and gas group Apache Corporation, while talks continue with their former co-shareholder, Norwegian chemical company Yara.
Last week’s settlement talks with the ANZ came as Mrs Oswal took the stand in her duress case against the bank.
Mrs Oswal claims the bank pressured her into signing a guarantee over $US568 million in debts to prevent her husband going to jail for fraud over falsified security documents.
Last Wednesday she told the Victorian Supreme Court: “There was no other way out. I had a gun at my head.”
Mrs Oswal said then ANZ chief risk officer Chris Page told her there were people at the bank who believed she was also involved and she too could go to jail.
She testified that during the December 2009 meetings, ANZ group general counsel Bob Santamaria told her lawyer: “Do you realise that both of them could go to jail and their children would become orphans?”
Mrs Oswal said her husband did not want the bank to expose his role in the fraud, nor did the ANZ want it to come out.
Mr Oswal has also been accused of misappropriating more than $150 million in Burrup Fertilisers money, part of which was spent on Perth mansions, luxury cars and his wife’s vegetarian restaurant chain.
The Oswals fled Australia in December 2010 after the ANZ demanded its loans be repaid and brought in receivers.
They returned in April this year for the ANZ stoush but have been barred from leaving Australia until a separate court case with the tax office is resolved.
It is understood part of any funds from further settlement deals will be used to pay out the couple’s tax bills.