NAB’s Rosemary Rogers ‘lived the high life,’ court hears

NAB CEO’s chief of staff took multiple overseas holidays as part of a ‘very luxurious life’, it has emerged.

Rosemary Rogers is released on bail from Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills, Sydney yesterday. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Rosemary Rogers took multiple overseas holidays with her family and even hired a private island in Fiji as part of a “very luxurious life”, it has emerged, after the former National Australia Bank employee was charged with fraud and bribery offences over five years.

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Details of spending related to $5.4 million of corrupt payments alleged to be received by Ms Rogers include a number of business class flights from Melbourne to Sydney and private helicopter transfers to the luxurious Wolgan Valley resort in the Blue Mountains.

On a month-long holiday to the US for Ms Rogers’ family, her sister and brother-in-law, $485,000 was spent on business class and private charter planes to New York, Miami, Washington and Hawaii. Ms Rogers’ relations repaid part of their share of the expenses.

In Melbourne, where she lives, Ms Rogers was also put up at the Crown Towers or dined at the ritzy Dinner by Blumenthal numerous times, each at a cost of thousands of dollars.

Investigators have found spending totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars in cheques and pre-paid credit cards.

Ms Rogers, 43, of Williamstown, flew from Melbourne to Sydney where she handed herself over to police and was charged with 57 offences of receiving corrupt payments.

The former chief of staff to NAB boss Andrew Thorburn was charged with 56 counts of corruptly receiving a benefit and one count of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception in an alleged scheme involving $40m of contracts the bank granted to Human Group, a company run by her co-accused, Helen Rosamond.

Police will allege Ms Rogers received bribes in the form of paid personal expenses to the value of more than $5.4m from a contractor to maintain the contract and approve overstated invoices.

Under NSW law, corruptly receiving a benefit can attract up to seven years jail while dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage carries a penalty of up to 10 years.  Central Local Court magistrate Robert Williams said it was a “strong prosecution case” that if successful was likely to result in a jail sentence.

Ms Rogers appeared in court by video link from Surry Hills police station yesterday and was not required to enter a plea. She was bailed on condition she surrender her passport, report daily to police and not contact Ms Rosamond.

Her lawyers told the court she could not afford to post a surety as all of her assets bar her living expenses had been frozen by the NSW Crime Commission.

Her husband, a plumber, is the primary breadwinner for her and two young children.

Arguing for bail, lawyers for Ms Rogers told the court the asset freeze and links to her local community meant she was not likely to be a fight risk.

Ms Rogers, unemployed since resigning from NAB in December 2017, had voluntarily flown to Sydney to hand herself in to police and had co-operated with investigations by the bank and by police. This included a search warrant executed by police in April, an interview with police at her home in Melbourne in July and a “quite extensive” affidavit provided to the Crime Commission on December 23.

Some 31 of the corruption charges NSW Police have laid against Ms Rogers relate to kickbacks alleged to each exceed $15,000. The remainder relate to smaller amounts.

On Friday Ms Rogers was named in court as the co-accused with Ms Rosamond as she was charged with 56 counts of alleged bribery and two of fraud totalling $6.6m. She was released on bail of $200,000 ahead of a trial that could take 18 months to begin.

A NAB spokesman said that if the alleged fraud was proved “ it represents a most serious breach of trust by a former employee”.

“We continue to co-operate fully with police and we thank them for their important work in investigating this matter,” he said.

He said the bank was “the victim in this matter”.

“Police have confirmed that no one at NAB is under investigation, including former CEO Andrew Thorburn, and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by anyone at NAB,” he said.

He said the alleged fraud was reported to the bank by a whistleblower and the bank “responded immediately, investigated and reported it to police”.

The two arrests follow the creation of NSW Police’s Strike Force Napthali last year to investigate fraud allegations.

Police said the Human Group and NAB had done business for 12 years, but that the investigation focused on the years between 2013 and 2017 when it is alleged Ms Rosamond paid a series of bribes, including luxury trips interstate and to the US and a boat in return for the approval of inflated invoices.

Ms Rogers is due to appear later this month in the NSW Supreme Court in relation to millions of dollars in property and other assets that were frozen under the proceeds of crime laws.

The assets include Ms Rogers’ home in the bayside Melbourne suburb of Williamstown, which she bought for $3.8m in December 2017, two motorboats, a Range Rover and the proceeds of a $1m cheque.