Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Australia and New Zealand Banking, and six of the firms’ former staff were committed to stand trial in Australia on Tuesday, December 8, after pleading not guilty to colluding during a share issue, reported Reuters.
In the country’s biggest white collar criminal case, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has brought charges against the financial giants, their client, and their former executives, accusing them of colluding to keep stock they were trying to sell to stop the price falling.
The matter has crawled through numerous hearings in a local court in Sydney as lawyers for each defendant sought to cross-examine prosecution witnesses and question whether regulators followed due process as they gathered evidence.
Now, with the formal pleas of not guilty, the matter will go to trial in the Federal Court, more than two years since the charges were brought and five years since the AU$2.5 billion (US$1.8 billion) stock issue for ANZ took place. A trial date has not yet been set.
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