AWB cole enquiry

[malleefarmer]

Oil-for-food inquiry Commissioner Terence Cole has blasted wheat exporter AWB for failing to hand over a critical document until today.

The document is an email which was sent by AWB's former marketing manager Mark Emons.

It explains that AWB used a third company to disguise transport fees in case Iraqi wheat contracts came under scrutiny.

Commissioner Cole says any electronic search using the words money laundering, disguising fees, the UN or sanctions would have found the critical email.

AWB's lawyer James Judd has conceded the email should have been handed over months ago.

He says an AWB lawyer decided it was not relevant.

Commissioner Cole says there is no doubt the email would have shortened the inquiry.

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd says the email handed over at the inquiry today is blatant evidence of the company's wrong-doing.

"When the Volker committee of inquiry came out, Mr Howard in Parliament said that he had no basis whatsover for concluding that the AWB had been up to no good," he said.

"Well what we've seen again today is further massive information made available to the inquiry, which suggests exactly the amount of no good that the AWB have been up to."

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[TOM4CWB]

Mallee;

Here is what the CWB has been up to...

Taken from the Sept 25 CWB news letter posted on DTN:

"The CWB should not have been added to the list of "other government agencies" subject to the Access to Information Act because it is not a government agency, CWB board chair Ken Ritter told the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Sept. 20. Ritter said the CWB is accountable to farmers who sell their grain through the CWB and farmers, not taxpayers, pay its operating costs. He said being subject to the Act would put the CWB at a disadvantage to its competitors. View Ritter's remarks and the CWB's information policy ."

When we end up "short" on income... who pays for the CAIS and other safety net programs to grain farmers?

And,

How exactly would exposing non-commercial information put the "CWB at a disadvantage to its competitors"... other than it couldn't do what the AWB has been doing so effectively until now?

Hasn't the biggest "attribute" of single desk monopolies actually been the control of information... covering up corporate insanity and preventing foolish policies from being exposed?

If the CWB & AWB are fair, respect their growers, and operate with integrety... who would be afraid of having information released proving these attributes are consistant with operational activities?

Only someone who is ashamed and who has something to hide!

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt... it is alive, well, and a principal operating policy of the AWB & CWB!

God bless CA. and Au.... and forgive us for our dishonesty and theft through public policy;

&

"single desks" that do not respect the grain growers right to the grain they grew... and the right to knowledge of truthful management decisions that will only be improved/rectified if exposed to the public.

[silverback]

How do you spell "hypocrite" ?

The CWB not a gov't agency hey Ken Ritter? Another hilarious comment out of that office building.

[food4u]

If the CWB is not controlled by the federal gov't, how come they have to go hat in hand to the fed's for the setting of the initial price or an adjustment.

[TOM4CWB]

Mallee,

I see the public hearings ended!

http://search.abc.net.au/search/cache.cgi?collection=newscurrent&doc=http/abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200609/s1752349.htm


"Cole wraps up public hearings


Hearings of the oil-for-food inquiry have ended today, with Commissioner Terence Cole describing payments to Iraq as a disaster for AWB.

The last witness, AWB's former managing director Andrew Lindberg, broke down in tears after giving his evidence.

For months, AWB has weathered accusations it paid almost $300 million in bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Today, Commissioner Cole revealed that he is also examining whether AWB officials have committed the crime of financing terrorism.

An email AWB executive Daryl Borlase wrote in 2001 after a trip to Baghdad was tabled as evidence.

He wrote after inspecting wheat storage facilities:

"... the bunkers will have cement walls and floor so they are actually designed for burying the Kurds - under the cement?? They intend to build them with fumigation capability so the mind boggles as to whether they are fumigating insects or any other pest."

Mr Lindberg said this afternoon he absolutely regretted the email and hoped it was not said in a serious way.

He denied the new evidence of lawyers who say he was told AWB actions were possibly illegal, and in breach of United Nations' sanctions.

Memory lapse

The former chairman of AWB Trevor Flugge was also recalled to the witness box today.

He was asked "Will you apologise to the people of Iraq?" to which he replied, "I'm not making any comments."

Mr Flugge's memory has not improved.

He either could not recall, or dismissed, claims from a lawyer and three other AWB executives that he told them he knew all about the inner workings of the way AWB sent money to the Iraqis.

Mr Flugge could also not remember anything about an unsigned letter tabled today, which suggested he met with the then agriculture minister, Warren Truss, about concerns about Iraqi-Australian trade.

It said AWB remained committed to the trade terms with the Iraqi grains board, and the Australian Government supported that commitment.

Mr Truss says he did meet Mr Flugge in 2000 but they only spoke about general wheat issues.

Commissioner Cole is not interested. He closed the public hearings late this afternoon, telling Mr Lindberg the illicit payments to Iraq had been a disaster for AWB and, no doubt, for Mr Lindberg personally.

Mr Lindberg says the payments should not have happened under his stewardship. Moments later Mr Lindberg was crying, as his wife comforted him.

Commissioner Cole has plenty of reading material.

The inquiry has been given documents which total 300,000 pages and there are 8,000 pages of transcripts from public hearings.

The final report is due in late November."

Here are the transcripts from ABC:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT

LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2006/s1751523.htm

Broadcast: 28/09/2006

Cole blasts AWB for lateness of document
Reporter: Nick Grimm


MAXINE MCKEW: Well, now to today's dramatic developments in the AWB inquiry, which is investigating claims that the wheat exporter was funnelling bribes to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. All eyes were on former AWB chairman Trevor Flugge, who was listed for cross examination, but time ran out after the Commissioner, Terence Cole, blasted AWB for delaying tactics, for taking nine months to hand over a crucial document which detailed how the kickback scheme worked. AWB claims it hadn't produced the damning material earlier because one of the company’s in house lawyers had deemed it irrelevant claims which left Justice Cole and the legal experts in dismay. Nick Grimm reports.

NICK GRIMM: The former chairman of the AWB just couldn't avoid the media outside the Cole inquiry today after turning up to give further evidence about his knowledge of kickbacks paid to Saddam Hussein. But Trevor Flugge had to cool his heels as the spotlight remained on the AWB's lawyers and their advice relating to Australia's biggest bribery scandal. The focus on the legal profession and, in particular, some of Australia's top law firms, is shining a light on an area rarely exposed.

MICHAEL INGLIS, BARRISTER: The best policeman in the world is an electric light globe and this commission is proving that fulsomely. You could say that it's unprecedented and for many people in the legal profession it's, in fact, quite exciting because it's so unusual to see these inner workings laid out in a public forum.

NICK GRIMM: It was certainly an uncomfortable day for the AWB's lawyers, with Commissioner Terence Cole furious that the company had only just provided his inquiry with a crucial document, one that AWB barrister James Judd admitted could have shortened the inquiry by months if it had only been handed over sooner. The document in question was an email written six years ago by the then AWB executive Mark Emons, outlining his plans to pay kickbacks to Iraq via the Jordanian trucking company Alia. Mark Emons wanted to use another company called 'Ronly' to pay Alia because AWB's senior management were:

“scared of getting caught up in sanctions etc. and everything that could entail for their business. It would be ideal from our point of view if we have a third party… This not only saves us time but does disguise the fee.”

Commissioner Cole was livid when he was told that one of AWB's senior in house lawyers, Rosemary Peavey, had decided that document wasn't relevant to the inquiry.

COMMISSIONER COLE: It is inconceivable to me that any lawyer could take that view… If she took the view that this document is irrelevant, I have great concerns.

JAMES JUDD QC: Commissioner, could I respond in this way. There is no doubt about the relevance of this document. There is no doubt about the importance of this document. There is no doubt that this document falls into a category which, plainly, ought to have been provided to the commission months ago… it may well have shortened some of the inquiry.

COMMISSIONER COLE: There’s no doubt, if we had had this document and others.

JAMES JUDD QC: It is a crucial document.

NICK GRIMM: In fact, it might be even more crucial than the hundreds of pages of documents that the AWB was forced to hand over to the inquiry last week after it was told recently by a Federal Court judge that it could not claim legal professional privilege over them. Now, that's the principle that dictates that what someone tells their own lawyer can't be used against them in a court. The Federal Court ruled, however, that doesn't apply when the exchange may reveal unlawful activity and it's a decision that has reportedly sent a chill through Australia's legal fraternity.

MICHAEL INGLIS: Well, I think a few people, I hope more than a few people will be saying to themselves, "There but for the grace of God go I," that they need to keep a weather eye to the possibility that what they think will remain secret for all time might end up not being secret for all time.

NICK GRIMM: Tax barrister Michael Inglis is an expert on legal professional privilege who says the Cole Commission has now raised serious questions about the conduct of lawyers who advise corporate clients.

MICHAEL INGLIS: The point I'd make is that lawyers have a choice often in matters of this kind that are contentious, and that's between telling the client what the client desperately wants to hear and telling the client what the client needs to be told, and they're two very different things.

NICK GRIMM: As a result of the Federal Court's recent decision the inquiry now has its hands on a truckload of new evidence that the AWB did not want to disclose. It includes notes made by another lawyer advising the AWB, Chris Quennell, of a conversation he had two years ago with the gun toting, globe trotting wheat farmer at the centre of this scandal. Chris Quennell recorded Trevor Flugge telling him about payments made to the Iraqi Grains Board, or IGB.

TREVOR FLUGGE: Effectively we paid money back to IGB then they did inland transport – we paid it back through Ronly – they paid Alia Transport.

NICK GRIMM: When he appeared before the inquiry in February, Trevor Flugge told the inquiry he couldn't remember anything about the money paid to Iraq. Back then he was described as the Howard Government's million dollar man. Trevor Flugge was paid that amount of money to be Australia's man in Iraq advising on agricultural issues in the immediate aftermath of the investigation. The rewards were great, despite Mr Flugge's own assessment of the challenges that faced him.

TREVOR FLUGGE: Well, initially the challenges were quite simple ones, there were no structure. Things are going quite well.

NICK GRIMM: But when Trevor Flugge last gave evidence to the Cole inquiry he revealed just how little Australian taxpayers got for their money. He told the inquiry he had a poor memory and an even poorer grasp of the wheeling and dealing that went on around him because, he said, he was just a figurehead who was deaf in one ear and hard of hearing in the other. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of this week's evidence is the relationship that existed between the AWB and its own lawyers.

MICHAEL INGLIS: Well a lot of people in the legal fraternity I'm sure around Australia are following proceedings very closely. They know a number of the players, there's some quite big names in there, not only firms, but also barristers. And it's exciting in the sense that you don't often get to look at the work product of other lawyers.

NICK GRIMM: As early as August 2003, the AWB was warned by top law firm Blake Dawson Waldren that it had possibly breached UN sanctions and criminal laws. What's more, the inquiry has discovered the AWB's lawyers had been who withholding pages of evidence outlining the gossip, rumours and scuttlebutt that's been swirling around inside the AWB for years. AWB's own staff condemned the payments to Iraq, making comments like:

“It sounded corrupt…”
“Thought it dodgy…”
“Smelt then, smells now.”

NICK GRIMM: There was also the dramatic claim that former AWB executive Michael Watson was suspected of personally pocketing more than $20 million in kickbacks. Yet, despite all those assessments, the AWB also obtained favourable opinions from senior legal figures such as the former High Court Justice Sir Anthony Mason and QCs Robert Richter and Richard Tracy, the latter a Federal Court judge. While Michael Inglis says there's nothing improper about the advice, it could give rise to the appearance that AWB had engaged in what’s known as opinion shopping.

MICHAEL INGLIS: Well, I know a bit about opinion-shopping. That's when a client who wants to be told a particular thing keeps knocking on doors until they get told what they want to hear and, regrettably, along the way, if certain clients need to change the story that they're telling as the basis upon which they want the advice, well, the story gets changed.

NICK GRIMM: And there's no doubt the AWB kickback scandal is a story that also keeps on changing.


Mallee;

WOW... you folks are breaking new ground Here... not sure you wanted to be this famous though!

[agstar77]

Since the government guarantees the initial price ,they must be consulted when it is set or changed.

[TOM4CWB]

Mallee;

The Ocean Freight AWB manager was on the take to?

http://www.uswheat.org/wheatLetter/doc/5B5506B2D91B027F852571F7006306B6?OpenDocument#

US Wheat Associates

6. Cole inquiry reveals new accusations; final report delayed again

It’s been a busy week for the Cole inquiry investigating allegations that monopoly wheat exporter AWB Ltd paid millions to Saddam Hussein’s regime under the now defunct United Nations Oil for Food program.

The documents turned over to the commission last week under court order, with supporting testimony, poked big holes in AWB Ltd’s on-going defense that it did not break any laws because their lawyers told them they didn’t. Additionally, new bribery accusations were made by the colleagues of a former AWB manager. Although formal testimony is expected to end this week, the commission has asked for another extension to prepare and submit a final report—now due in late November.

From the time it was accused of paying kickbacks to Iraq, AWB has consistently claimed that its lawyers investigated its actions and told the organization it had done nothing wrong. But the Cole inquiry this week revealed that attorneys did, in fact, express concern about the transactions as early as August 2003, two months after USW originally raised questions about the issue. The Australian press reported that the lawyers concluded transport payments could be illegal under United Nations sanctions and possibly Australian law because “they were intended to obtain Iraqi wheat business.”

Also this week, AWB’s chartering manager during the time in question was accused by former colleagues of accepting about $16 million in bribes from a Melbourne shipping company. Allegedly, the bribes rewarded the manager personally for exclusive arrangements with the shipping company to transfer money through front companies and eventually into Saddam’s coffers."

And this is just what they found so far!