Ex-NAB chief of staff faces court

Cartoon: Rod Clement

The former National Australia Bank executive at the heart of an alleged fraud scandal inside the troubled $68 billion institution will head to court mid next month as the NSW Crime ­Commission continues its ­pursuit of the extraordinary ­affair.

As exiting National Australia Bank boss Andrew Thorburn is set to finish up in the top office on Thursday, Margin Call has learned that his former chief of staff Rosemary Rogers will face the NSW Supreme Court on March 18.

The hearing follows court orders freezing the assets of the bank exec and her husband Anthony Rogers in December last year following a proceeds of crime application by the NSW Crime Commission.

The orders are part of an investigation by NSW police into allegations Rogers and corporate travel and event supplier The Human Group owned and operated by Helen Rosamond were involved in running a massive fraud against the bank.

Melbourne-based Rogers is yet to face any criminal charges.

The crime commission has frozen four properties controlled by Rogers and her husband, including their $4 million home in ­Williamstown and a holiday house in Bellbrae, as well as three NAB bank accounts, a $1m cheque, two boats, a boat trailer and a Range Rover.

At the same time as the Supreme Court froze the assets at the end of last year, it also ­ordered the couple submit to ­examinations under oath concerning their affairs, including further details of any assets they have interests in.

It is expected those examinations will have been conducted with the couple by the time the matter returns to the court in mid-March.

There is not expected to be a final hearing on the ultimate confiscation of the Rogers’ assets until any criminal proceedings against Rosemary Rogers have been completed.

Rosamond’s case

Meanwhile, the private business operator at the heart of NAB’s multi-million-dollar fraud scandal inside the office of outgoing boss Andrew Thorburn will also return to court in Sydney next month.

As police continue their investigations into the alleged scandal involving Thorburn’s former chief of staff Rosemary Rogers and NAB supplier The Human Group, that company’s principal Helen Rosamond will be back in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on March 5.

NSW Police have obtained an apprehended violence order for Rosamond, who facilitated luxury travel and events for the Thorburn-led NAB executive via the Rogers-run CEO’s office, against Rosamond’s former husband and business partner Geoff Rosamond. He was a former shareholder and director of The Human Group, but exited the company’s share register in February last year.

The Human Group’s North Sydney offices were raided by police last April as part of the continuing investigation, which has reached into the heart of the still Ken Henry-chaired bank.

The AVO matter was last in court in December.

At the NAB annual meeting also that month, Thorburn admitted that he had been too trusting of those in his office.

The luck of Blundy

Could it be that Bahamas-based, but Melbourne-born retail billionaire Brett Blundy is prophetic?

Yesterday, the 59-year-old’s listed homewares and manchester outfit Adairs, which first floated on the local exchange in mid-2015, unveiled a strong interim profit and lifted its dividend almost 20 per cent to 6.5c a share.

There was also the prediction of more good news ahead.

And would you believe the luck of Blundy, who at last count on the Stensholt Index was estimated to be worth a cool $1.71bn?

Brett Blundy: is he prophetic?

The billionaire, who these days hides away in one of the world’s most exclusive gated communities — Paradise Island off the Bahamas capital Nassau — has in recent months been buying up big in his little Aussie retail franchise.

He’s taken his stake from 9.1 per cent of the $320m company to 14.1 per cent over the past two months.

Just before Christmas, Blundy spent $9m buying 5.35 million shares and then in mid-January forked out another $8.25m for five million Adairs shares to take his total holding to 23.3 million shares.

All up, he has put $17.25m on the table.

Blundy, who was in the market via his BB Retail Capital, is back as Adairs’ biggest single investor, topping private equity group Catalyst, run by Trent Peterson, which has 12 per cent.

Peterson has a seat on the Adairs board (and was its chairman until the time of the float), while Blundy merely watches from his terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

The dividend hike means that Blundy’s payout on his shares for the interim will be more than $1.5m — not quite in Hamish Douglass or Chris Mackay’s dividend league at Magellan Financial Group (they got interim dividends of $16m and $13.7m, respectively) or James Packer’s $93m payout from Crown Resorts, but small fish are sweet.

Margin Call notes that the waterfront, vacant land adjacent to Blundy’s luxury Caribbean home remains for sale for a cool $9.35m.

His dividend might make a nice deposit.