ANZ cartel case called defective and invalid, as date set for trial

Defence silks lash the indictment in the ANZ cartel case, set for April trial, with ANZ signalling it’ll seek to have charges quashed.

The cartel case is set to go on trial on April 4. Picture: David Geraghty

The Federal Court has set a trial date of April 4 for the hotly-contested cartel case involving bankers from ANZ Bank, Deutsche Bank and Citigroup over a $2.5bn capital raising by ANZ in 2015.

In a case management hearing on Monday, defence silks also slammed the criminal indictment, which was lodged on February 1.

“Our position is it’s not a valid indictment to get to first base,” Tim Game, for ANZ Bank, said.

Mr Game said the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) needed to confront this, and signalled that ANZ would mount an argument to quash the charges.

Federal Court judge Michael Wigney set the date after criticising the parties last December for delays.

“These charges have been hanging over the heads of these individuals but also major corporations,” he said at the time.

“They have to be brought to a head. It’s intolerable for it to go on.”

The landmark case began after a two-year investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission resulted in criminal charges brought by the CDPP.

The conduct regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, also took civil action against ANZ in relation to alleged cartel conduct.

However, those proceedings will not proceed until the criminal case has been resolved.

The banks and the executives involved have been defending the criminal case from the outset.

Citigroup, Deutsche and a third bank JP Morgan underwrote the placement of the ANZ shares, and were left with $791m of shares to offload.

The ACCC’s core allegation is that the parties came to an understanding as to how the stock would be sold, with JP Morgan not facing charges because it acted as a whistleblower.

Peter Wood, for Deutsche Bank executive Michael Richardson, added his voice on Monday to complaints about the Crown case, saying it included “fallacies” and was “incomprehensible in substance”.

“We see defects in the indictment which are so fundamental that they can’t be rectified by the case statement,” Mr Wood said.

The CDPP told the court that it planned to call an expert witness to conduct a tutorial about the way in which the ANZ shares were traded.

This would be for the benefit of the jury, after it was impanelled.