List of articles in the ‘08 Corrupt Culture Symptoms’ category

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Bob Santamaria’s letter of 27 February 2008 indicated that ANZ had supposedly undertaken significant effort in investigating my various claims.  What they failed to mention was the outcome of their investigations.  This was particularly important as I was making very serious claims about individuals and the overall ANZ approach to managing breaches of their Values and Code of Conduct.

Santamaria’s letter was further evidence of ANZ having a Corrupt Culture.

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What is most important is the last paragraph where ANZ state “there is nothing more we can reasonably do.”

Not so!  The revised Code of Conduct and Ethics is a good start but its application is the key issue.

Also the Opes Prime fiasco needs some very lateral thinking as to how does ANZ regain the significant loss of reputation.  Paying back the Opes Prime investors may be a start and stop taking a fully legalistic approach, otherwise I believe the ANZ is doomed.

I have known Peter Marriott for many years.  During the latter part of my legal case and shortly after settlement I advised Marriott of concerns I had regarding the integrity of some of his senior colleagues, namely Tim L’Estrange and Shane Freeman.

In 2005 I wrote to John McFarlane indicating the futility in ANZ fighting my case as their existed overwhelming evidence of ANZ’s wrongdoing.   This was after Shane Freeman had dismissed key evidence and it was clear that ANZ were treating the whole process of fighting me with their Shareholders deep pockets.  A clear example of this was the first court arranged mediation where ANZ’s only representative was Peter Donald. Donald was the key executive who was dishonest and was never going to admit this so he along with a junior Freehill’s counsel undertook a useless mediation session. 

The only party to gain out of this was Freehills who should have known better than to allow Donald to be the only ANZ Representative at such a mediation.  Also Donald’s track record at mediation was one of deceitfulness as proven by his involvement in a mediation dated 20 November 2002 - but that is another story.

Anyway L’Estrange was instructed by John McFarlane to undertake off line mediation with me after I made an offer to do this.  The mediation in late 2006 over many weeks in a coffee lounge proved futile as L’Estrange was “dealing from the bottom of the pack” so to speak.  

Firstly the apology letter he indicated he drafted  was in fact a Freehills drafted document dated May 2006 which aligned with the date the second court ordered mediation occurred.  Secondly the letter was not an apology at all but a statement related to “if” any wrong had been done to me.

Also L’Estrange had written to me in late 2005 indicating that they took my Whistleblower Statement seriously and would investigate it. In May 2006 ANZ admitted it had done nothing with the Whistleblowers Statement.  In short L’Estrange lied. He wrote to me in November 2005 stating one thing. Just over six months later a representative of ANZ who worked for L’Estrange along with the Freehills legal team stated nothing had been done with the Whistleblowers Statement.  In short L’Estrange lied about a key element of my concerns about ANZ’s behaviour.  These conserns were fully explained in the Whistleblowers Statement.

Shane Freeman who was repeatedly given irrefutable evidence of Donald’s dishonesty summed up his position by stating that I was retrenched and that if I wished to pursue the matter he would see me in court.  Again Freeman was using ANZ’s deep pockets to challenge me to seek justice.

Now back to Marriott.  This is the man ANZ has recently [November 2008] announced as the Chair of the ANZ Corporate Responsibility Council.  His track record when it comes to wanting to check on his fellow executives is pretty poor.  Apart from threatening legal action he merely dismisses claims of wrongdoing by the simple statement “I have not carried out any investigation as I have confidence in the professionalism of Tim and Shane.” [Email dated 8^th March 2007]

Well this is exactly the environment that a Corrupt Culture thrives in.  Remember I wrote to Marriott having known him in a professional arena for many years.  He should have realized I do not take dismissive remarks lightly and the insulting comments such as “I would encourage you to put this behind you and focus on the future.” [Email 6^th March 2007]  Given I could not even obtain a reinstatement of my position in the ANZ because in Tim L’Estrange’s words “there is too much bad blood.” Realistically where was I ever going to obtain a job again.

Bob Santamaria’s letter of 27th February 2008 indicating ANZ were not going to correspond with me any further begs the question as to what was the outcome of their so called extensive investigations.

My letter to Charles Goode raises some of these questions and forms the basis of my 2008 Directorship nomination.

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Obviously frustrated at my attempt to show elements of ANZ having a Corrupt Culture, Bob Santamaria the ANZ Group General Counsel and Company Secretary advises in a very self serving manner the effort ANZ has gone to in an attempt to appease me.

What is stunningly obvious from the letter is the lack of admission by ANZ of what they had found from their so called investigations.  This hiding of the outcomes of their investigations is further evidence of the symptoms of a Corrupt Culture.

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This letter to Bob Santamaria reaffirms my concerns about ANZ having a Corrupt Culture.  This is particularly so as whilst ANZ has indicated that it undertook significant investigations into my allegations at no time do they indicate that my concerns regarding executives dishonesty were substantiated.

For anyone to claim a person is dishonest, they undertake a substantial risk if this is fact not the case.  Interestingly ANZ never refuted any of my claims of executive dishonesty.

This letter was designed to give the ANZ Chairman irrefutable evidence of Peter Donald’s dishonesty such that the ANZ would act properly to sanction such behaviour.

To allow such dishonest behavior to go unchecked only served to confirm that ANZ has a Corrupt Culture.

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