NAB executive Rosemary Rogers jailed for eight years for $5m fraud

Former NAB chief of staff Rosemary Rogers to serve minimum four years and nine months jail over expenses fraud scheme.

Former NAB executive Rosemary Rogers arrives at Downing Centre District Court in Sydney for sentencing. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Rosemary Rogers, the disgraced former chief of staff to NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn, has been jailed for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years and nine months, for her part in a multimillion-dollar fraud scam.

Rogers pleaded guilty in October to 33 charges related to $5.5m in kickbacks from illegitimate and inflated invoices submitted to NAB. The Downing Centre ­District Court in Sydney had heard that Rogers engaged in a years-long rort by funnelling millions of dollars to herself and her alleged accomplice Helen Rosamond.

It found money from the over-inflated invoices was knowingly used by Rogers to fund a lavish lifestyle of international holidays, the purchase and renovation of a beach house, as well as a trophy mansion in Melbourne.

The court heard Rogers’ family would pay her back for trips they accompanied her on, but that ­Rogers would still receive a full ­repayment for her costs from Ms Rosamond.

Sentencing judge Paul Conlon said he found it “absolutely staggering” that Rogers’ frauds had not been detected earlier “by some appropriate system of internal audit” at NAB.

He noted all that was required for her fraud to succeed was that Ms Rosamond’s executive services firm Human Group would submit invoices for “very substantial sums of money” that were “devoid of ­detail”.

“And the offender would merely approve, courtesy of her delegated authority, and send off a payment,” he said.

The court found Rogers dishonestly approved $12.34m in payments to Human Group.

In her role as chief of staff, ­Rogers had the authority to personally approve invoices of up to $20m. Rogers was found to have signed off inflated invoices submitted by Human Group which netted her almost $5.5m in lavish gifts and overseas trips, as well as luxury items and vehicles.

A whistleblower’s letter, collectively sent to all NAB executives and board members, tipped off investigators to the fraud only days after she secured a payment from Ms Rosamond to assist in the purchase of a new home.

Ms Rosamond was also alleged to have paid for Rogers’ holidays to Fiji and Europe, given her a BMW, largely funded the purchase of two boats and a caravan as well as $1.85m for a $3.8m trophy home in the inner-western Melbourne suburb of Williamstown.

The payments for the home ­included Ms Rosamond supplying upfront the $380,000 deposit as well as a $1.5m cheque to Rogers and her partner. The payments to cover Rogers’ home were masked in a $2.2m invoice issued to NAB purporting to cover expenses incurred in hiring former NSW premier Mike Baird under the ­codename “Project Eagle”.

Text messages between Rogers and Ms Rosamond submitted to the court show they referred to each other as “besties” and “sisters from another mother”.

Despite the multimillion-dollar arrangement between NAB and Human Group, Rogers was ­reportedly the only member of NAB’s staff who had direct contact with Ms Rosamond.

Human Group received more than $44m in payments from NAB during Rogers’ time as chief of staff, comprising 97 per cent of its total business.

Ms Rosamond has denied the charges and will face a trial later this year, at which Rogers will provide statements against her.