A Sydney businesswoman accused of defrauding the National Australia Bank of millions of dollars spent more than $200,000 furnishing her Potts Point terrace and thousands on artworks, a court has heard.
Helen Rosamond, 47, is standing trial in the NSW District Court in Sydney on charges relating to her alleged role in defrauding NAB.
She has pleaded not guilty to 60 counts of giving a corrupt benefit and 32 counts of dishonestly obtaining, or attempting to dishonestly obtain, a financial advantage by deception. The jury has heard the charges total $15 million.
Helen Rosamond enters court on charges of defrauding NAB for millions of dollars through an invoice kickback scheme.Credit: Oscar Colman
The Crown alleges Rosamond sent falsified and inflated invoices from her event management company Human Group to NAB between 2013 and 2017 and paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to Rosemary Rogers, chief of staff in the office of the bank’s then-chief executive, to ensure they were paid.
The court has previously heard allegations Rosamond paid for luxury travel, accommodation, and a vehicle for Rogers, in return for Rogers approving inflated invoices that incorrectly attributed Rosamond’s personal expenses to NAB, including $228,747 for an interior designer to furnish her home.
Interior designer Robbie Nicol gave evidence in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Monday that she helped furnish Rosamond’s Potts Point home in 2017. It was a “complete fitout of the terrace”, Nicol said.
Nicol said Rosamond’s company, Human Group, was not her client. However, she told the court Rosamond instructed her to “make invoices out to the Human Group” when charging for her interior design services.
The invoices referred to the services as “re project 106”, the court heard. Nicol said this was not a description relating to her own bookkeeping.
The first invoice, sent in June 2017, totalled $175,943, while the second, sent in July, subtracted that amount from a grand total of $228,747, leaving a balance of $52,804. Nicol told the court she had been paid in full.
The court heard police investigating the alleged fraud had subsequently asked Nicol for her records.
Art dealer Dariush Nivan, now based in Mosman but then in Cremorne, gave evidence on Monday that he sold Rosamond $17,888 worth of art, in the form of one larger work and two smaller pieces. An invoice was addressed to Rosamond at Human Group, the court heard, and was marked as paid.
In her opening address to the court last week, Crown prosecutor Katrina Mackenzie said the charges against Rosamond totalled $15 million.
The court has heard Rosamond’s company had regularly carried out event planning services for NAB executives. Rogers, who had worked for the bank since 1995, was authorised to approve payments of up to $20 million.
Rogers has been prosecuted and jailed for her role in the NAB arrangement, the jury has been told, and she is expected to give evidence in the trial.
Rosamond’s barrister, Dr Anton Hughes, said in his opening address to the court that the central issue in the case would be whether Rosamond was party to an agreement with Rogers to defraud the bank.
“[The] interpretation that it was all Ms Rosamond’s idea is very much disputed,” Hughes said. “The defence is likely to raise an alternative interpretation, that it was Ms Rogers who took those benefits for herself.”
The trial continues.
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