Rosemary Rogers in guilty plea on deception charge

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

Rosemary Rogers, the former chief of staff to then-NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn, has pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining financial benefit by ­deception.

Sentencing is now imminent over the $14.3m worth of in­voices that were processed, knowingly overinflated or false, which caused a huge financial disadvantage to the Melbourne-headquartered bank.

The Department of Public Prosecutions filed an amended 38-charge sheet at her Sydney court hearing on Thursday.

Rosemary Rogers Picture: Jonathan Ng

Rogers, donning a professional black pantsuit, attended the Central Local Court hearing with her barrister Catherine Newman, from Wardell Chambers, indicating there was “a plea of guilty”.

The former 20-year NAB staffer, who had previously been excused from attending under her Melbourne bail conditions, was in the same courtroom as her co-accused Helen Rosamond, the Sydney-based head of former NAB executive services contractor The Human Group.

The two did not speak, with the tanned Rosamond arriving early, taking a front-row seat in the crowded courtroom.

Rogers arrived just before the scheduled hearing time with her legal team taking a seat down the back.

The matter was pushed down the mention list, with the DPP criticised by judge Graeme Henson for their late arrival.

The Rosamond matter was adjourned for a fortnight as the DPP had given her legal team three compact discs on the eve of the Thursday morning mention.

Helen Mary Rosamond Picture: Dylan Robinson

Rosamond’s barrister, Matthew Breeze, from Garfield Barwick Chambers, advised that the discs had 1000 telephone calls and text messages on them. The late service warranted the adjournment, Judge Henson noted.

Rogers was arrested in March last year, and fronted the court two weeks later.

The final 38 charges between 2013 and late 2017 included ­corruptly receiving benefits, including accommodation on ­numerous occasions at Crown Towers and a $1446 dinner downstairs at Heston Blumenthal. There was a Polperro winery party, Fijian and European holidays and a $44,900 Wolgan Valley holiday.

There was a $172,000 BMW X5 received as an inducement from Rosamond to Rogers and a $115,000 Chaparral boat. There was a $91,000 Bunkhouse caravan and marina fees, too.

There were $468,000 worth of renovations to her Bellbrae holiday home and a $380,000 deposit to help purchase her former Williamstown abode.

Rogers, who remains on bail, will be sentenced at a later date.

NAB declined to comment as the case was still ongoing. The bank had previously said the alleged fraud was reported by a whistleblower, and it responded immediately, investigated and reported it to police.

Packer’s riches duel

You wouldn’t expect gaming billionaire James Packer to entrust the management of his wealth to just anybody. Since selling 10 per cent of his Crown Resorts to his friend Lawrence Ho for $880m, Packer has dolled out moneys to two of Australia’s best money men, Magellan’s Hamish Douglass and former Crown director and Mac banker Ben Brazil.

So just who will deliver the best returns for one of Australia’s richest men?

Brazil, who with the backing also of media billionaire Kerry Stokes and Stokes’s son Ryan and high education super fund UniSuper created new investment firm 2B Investments, just might have the jump on Douglass.

Packer tells our esteemed colleague Damon Kitney in Friday’s edition of The Deal that Douglass, himself now worth more than $1bn, is yet to invest a cent of the funds that Packer had entrusted him with.

“Getting the timing right is an important thing,” Packer told Kitney, noting that Douglass’s ability to pick stocks was “obviously very unique and world class”.

So that gives Brazil, who made squillions for MacBank via principal investments, a chance to get in ahead of Douglass to sink Packer’s money into lucrative profit-generating deals.

Meanwhile, Packer’s luxury mega yacht IJE is floating close to the French Polynesian island of Taha’a, not far from Bora Bora, where the billionaire could be enjoying the Tahitian sunshine.

That’s closer than his homes in Aspen, Los Angeles and Mexico, to Sydney shores, where the NSW Independent Liquor & Gaming Authority public hearing begins on Monday by former judge Patricia Bergin into Packer’s deal with Melco and Crown’s fitness to hold a casino licence in NSW.

At some point during the five-part inquiry, Packer is expected to be called as a witness to the inquiry, as are his trusted lieutenants Mike Johnston and Guy Jalland, plus former Crown executive chairman John Alexander.

That will be the first many will have seen of JA, who’s been making himself scarce since he lost the Crown chairmanship in late January.

Gretel’s Zillow killing

Still on Packer matters, James Packer’s billionaire sister Gretel and her adviser Will Vicars would have been all smiles yesterday following the latest results from US online real estate group Zillow. It reported its quarterly earnings, including sales of $US943.9m ($1.42bn), up from $US365.3m and well ahead of analysts’ estimates.

The numbers sent Zillow shares more than 15 per cent higher in aftermarket trading and they are now around the record high of just over $US63 achieved in July 2018.

Gretel has about 2.3 per cent of the Nasdaq-listed and Seattle-based company after her brother agreed to transfer her shares as part of a $1.25bn settlement of their father Kerry Packer’s will in 2015. Since October the value of her holding has increased by about $300m.

Vicars, whose Caledonia Investments has copped flak for having such a big position in Zillow — 25 per cent of the company, to be exact — has watched the value of his position increase by $2.3bn over the same period.

Another of Caledonia’s US investments, online food delivery group GrubHub, has also been back in favour since October, with its shares going from $US32 to $US54.

Gretel would also be enjoying the rain that has bucketed down in the Hunter Valley in recent weeks, greening up the pastures of the Ellerston property she now controls following the settlement with her brother.

Agent of change

After 16 years heading Marshall White’s Boroondara office, James Tostevin is off to the Mornington Peninsula, while staying with the real estate agency. He’s often been the group’s top seller, and has been an Australia-wide Top 100 Agent for the past 15 years.

The shift in his office follows his family relocation to Mount Eliza last year, having spent $3,575,000 on Lugano, a 2000-built, five-bedroom home with a tennis court and pool in Rick Eckersley gardens. The family previously called Malvern East home in a $5.3m house.

Son Charlie, who has been at the Boroondara office for five years, won’t be joining his old man however, Margin Call gleans. James’s brother Hamish also works at the agency.

James will continue at the Boroondara office until the new financial year, then take on the peninsula top guns who include Rob Curtain at Sotheby’s International, Quentin McEwing at McEwing & Partners, Aqua’s Michelle Skoglund and the longtime Kay & Burton Portsea team.

Tostevin, 54, will remain a key member of the five-office agency leadership team. He’s also the second-biggest shareholder, only behind 40-year veteran John Bongiorno.