Westpac whistleblower Samantha Aitken responds to bank’s defence in Rams home loans ‘fraud’ case

In her lawsuit against her employer, a Westpac risk officer alleges executives bullied her and failed to act on concerns which she raised about its home loans arm, Rams.

Westpac executive Samantha Aitken is suing the bank over allegations she was bullied for blowing the whistle on financial crime.

Westpac staffer Samantha Aitken insists the bank’s chief audit executive “strongly resisted” requests to address bullying allegations amid her concerns about criminal financial activity within its now defunct mortgage broking arm, Rams.

Ms Aitken, the bank’s head of risk and treasury audit, is suing Westpac in the Federal Court, alleging she was badged a “troublemaker” after calling out suspected fraud within the Rams Fairfield franchise which she claims was repeatedly ignored by some of Westpac’s most senior executives.

Mediation between the two parties appears to have failed, assisted dispute resolution has been closed off, and a further hearing listed for November.

Rams home loans is now defunct. Picture: Bloomberg

Ms Aitken alleged she became aware in about June 2022 of “suspected fraud and other criminal activities within the Rams Fairfield franchise”, which she claimed included staging wages, document falsification and self-referring of clients.

Westpac said in its defence it took appropriate steps to address issues at Rams and that concerns were escalated.

Westpac also denied Ms Aitken’s bullying allegations, and said she received a bonus in 2023 which was $20,000 more than the previous year.

A Westpac spokesman told The Australian it took “appropriate action in 2022 after our risk management controls uncovered issues in some Rams loan applications”.

“This action included heightened monitoring of loan applications, investigations into franchisees and the self-reporting of issues to regulators,” he said.

Rams has since closed.

Australia’s corporate cop has alleged in a separate court case against Rams that the home loans business provided loans to customers who otherwise may not have qualified for them, inflating commissions earned by franchisees between June 2019 and April 2023.

ASIC alleged Westpac did not have sufficient oversight.

Westpac chief audit executive Scott Kieran.

Responding to Westpac’s defence, Ms Aitken’s latest filings alleged chief audit executive Scott Kieran “strongly resisted” attending any meeting with group deputy chief risk officer Susan Hodgkinson.

In July 2023, Ms Aitken alleged she complained to Ms Hodgkinson that “there had been a potential breach … and questioned the sufficiency of information that Ms Hodgkinson’s team provided to the (Westpac’s) board in those years”.

Westpac denied the allegation.

The Westpac spokesman added: “Scott and Susan are highly respected leaders who always act with absolute integrity.

“The allegations that reference Scott and Susan were not substantiated, and Westpac is defending the claim,” the spokesman said on Friday.

“As we have stated in our defence, the employee thanked Scott for his support during the short period she worked for him.”

Mr Kieran is leaving Westpac, but that decision was unrelated to the case.

Ms Aitken alleged that, as she and her team attempted to conduct audits and engage in meetings with Ms Hodgkinson’s team, she was being bullied and that Ms Hodgkinson and other Westpac staff “were attempting to downplay negative findings” of an audit in July 2023.

In November that year, Ms Aitken alleged Mr Kieran suggested she speak with Ms Hodgkinson about claims of “unprofessional, difficult and bullying behaviour” and to be “careful about putting complaints in writing”.

“Only due to the applicant’s repeated insistence did Mr Kieran eventually agree to her requests to attend any meeting between the applicant and Ms Hodgkinson,” Ms Aitken said in her latest filings, from April.

Westpac’s defence alleged Ms Aitken emailed Mr Kieran in November 2023 asking to not take the matter further until she had a chance to speak with Ms Hodgkinson and her team, and repeated that she “thanked Mr Kieran for his support”.

But Ms Aitken’s latest court filings claim she was “concerned that Mr Kieran might use her complaint (and specifically, the fact that she had insisted on his involvement in any meeting with Ms Hodgkinson) against her”.

“Accordingly, she determined that the better course was to attempt to remediate her complaint on her own, without his involvement, and expressly informed him of this change in her position,” her court filings said.

She claims that Mr Kieran told her he had already gone to HR, and she would need to send him written confirmation of the withdrawal of her complaint to undo that.

Ms Aitken made two complaints to Westpac’s whistleblower protection officer in 2022 and 2023.