Australian prosecutors said on Friday they have dropped criminal cartel charges against Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and four senior bankers.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) withdrew the charges against the lenders in relation to criminal cartel allegations arising from an A$2.5 billion share placement by the ANZ bank in 2015.
The charges involved alleged cartel arrangements relating to trading in ANZ shares held by Deutsche Bank and Citigroup.
The bankers’ conduct was investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and in mid-2017 was referred to the CDPP, who decided to bring criminal cartel charges.
The ACCC was made aware of the conduct through an immunity application by another party involved in the conduct.
Charges against ANZ and two of the six senior banking executives were dropped last year, signalling that the case was unravelling.
“We respect the independent decision of the CDPP, and with them will consider what lessons can be learnt from this matter,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
‘Damage to Competition’
“Cartel conduct involves businesses acting together instead of competing fairly with each other,” Sims added. “We considered that the alleged conduct stood to damage competition and the Australian economy.”
Sims acknowledged that cartel behaviour was difficult to prove.
“While there can be challenges involved in bringing criminal cartel prosecutions, particularly due to the complexity of the cartel laws, we will continue our efforts to deter, detect and dismantle cartels.”
There have been five successful criminal prosecutions of cartel conduct affecting Australian consumers, following ACCC investigations and CDPP prosecution.
These include three convictions in cases against international shipping lines with penalties totalling $83.5 million, and guilty pleas by individuals in two recent cases in the pharmaceutical and money remittance sectors.
The original charges were brought at the height of a major government investigation into the Australian banking industry that revealed unethical behaviour and rampant misconduct.
- George Russell
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