Charges dropped against ANZ in ACCC share placement cartel case

Charges have been dropped charges against ANZ and senior executive Rick Moscati in a further shrinking of the ACCC’s cartel case.

An ACCC spokeswoman has reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to pursuing the cartel case.

Charges against ANZ and company executive Rick Moscati have been dropped in a further unwinding of the competition regulator’s landmark cartel case.

The bank received the discontinuance notice from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions late on Friday, marking an end to the bank’s involvement in the marathon case.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission had taken aim at ANZ and an array of other banks and bankers in the Federal Court over what it alleges was a plot to control the flow of trade in ANZ’s shares.

The cartel case alleged JP Morgan, ANZ, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank and six executives colluded in a 2015 capital raising.

The case was brought to the ACCC’s attention after it was approached by JP Morgan.

The banks and bankers were alleged to have colluded in a $2.5bn capital raising for ANZ.

ANZ had argued against its inclusion in the case when the matter last appeared before the courts in September, taking aim at charges from the CDPP.

The bank’s lawyers had levelled a broadside at the case in the court arguing ANZ was “wrongly” being kept in the case.

The commonwealth had alleged Mr Moscati had made bilateral calls with JP Morgan on the Friday concerned and encouraged the banks to come to an agreement on how to deal with residual ANZ shares.

Mr Moscati remains an executive at ANZ.

Rick Moscati.

ANZ chief risk officer Kevin Corball welcomed the move to drop charges against the bank.

“We maintained all along ANZ acted in accordance with the law in relation to the placement,” he said.

“We defended the bank and Rick on that basis and we are pleased the matter is now behind us.”

On Friday Justice Michael Wigney ordered the CDPP notify the accused parties as to whether it planned to object to the examination of “any proposed witness who is a current or former employee of JP Morgan”.

The move to drop charges against Mr Moscati comes after the CDPP dropped charges against former Citi country head Stephen Roberts in August.

Citigroup’s John McLean and Itay Tuchman, and Deutsche’s Michael Ormaechea and Michael Richardson, remain in the case but charges have been scaled back by two thirds.

The case, which has been dragging on for years, has loomed large for several of the defendants, including those who no longer live in Australia.

Justice Wigney is set to hand down judgment next week on elements of the case, but has remarked several times it was “intolerable” charges remained “hanging over the heads” of the accused.

An ACCC spokeswoman said the decision to drop charges in the cartel case was one for the CDPP “in accordance with the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth”.

“The CDPP decided to lay the initial charges and has now decided to discontinue the charges against ANZ and Mr Moscati,” she said.

“The charges against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and each of the remaining individual accused are continuing.”

But the ACCC spokeswoman reaffirmed the regulator’s commitment to the case.

“While there can be challenges involved in bringing criminal cartel prosecutions, we will continue to place a high priority on deterring, detecting and dismantling cartels that can harm Australian consumers and businesses, and will continue to refer allegations of serious cartel conduct to the CDPP,” she said.